SAN DIEGO — How fans have allowed this for so long we don’t understand, but Steven Spielberg finally decided to make his first appearance at San Diego’s annual Comic Con. Spielberg joined fellow acclaimed director/producer Peter Jackson to discuss his upcoming new film, “The Adventures of Tintin,” a 3-D motion capture animated film that is being released at the end of 2011. “The Adventures of Tintin” is based on on the comic series created by Belgian artist Georges “Hergé” Remi. Jackson serves as the producer for this film.

After the audience was shown a short clip reel featuring the best scenes from most of Spielberg’s films, the house lights in the large ballroom were turned on, and Spielberg made his grand entrance with surprise guest Peter Jackson. The audience of 500+ people predictably went insane and responded with an enthusiastic standing ovation.

Spielberg then dove right into discussing his new project. Spielberg got the idea to make “The Adventures of Tintin,” a European comic book series, from a French film review that compared one of this older movies to the comic book series. Upon reading some of the series, Spielberg was impressed by Remi’s work. Spielberg and Jackson approached the creation of this motion capture film (recording movement of body and facial expressions, and translating that movement on to a digital model – think Avatar) with the idea of making it look as much like the original comic book series as possible.

The sneak preview of footage that was shown to the audience almost looked like real life people acting on the screen. It truly is amazing what technology has done for the film industry.

The audience was then allowed to ask questions of the panelists. A young boy bravely approached the microphone, and in front of hundreds of people, asked Spielberg, all of the movies he has made, which was his favorite to make. Spielberg responded that the movie that has a special place in his heart is E.T. Having so much fun working with the child actors, made him think for the first time that he really want to have children. 7 children later, he got his wish.

The last audience member lucky enough to get the chance to pick Spielberg’s brain was a man whose shirt read “If possible I would love to meet Steven Spielberg and shake his hand. Thank you very much.” Upon seeing the shirt, broadcasted on the 3 huge screens that allowed the 500+ person audience to see the panel, Spielberg chuckled and invited the man on stage. Not only did this guy get to meet and shake Spielberg’s hand, but he also got a personal photo shoot with Peter Jackson. How can I get one of those shirts?!

For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding Spielberg and his almost unmatchable fame, what was remarkable was that he just seems like a nice, approachable kind of guy. He was very receptive to the audience’s questions, and his responses were very humble and seemingly down to earth. Definitely the kind of guy I wouldn’t mind sitting down and having a beer with. Good show Steve.

Say goodbye to the clackity clack of the buttons, and that satisfying winding and ding noise of the line feed bringing your cursor down to the next line, because the typewriter will be no more. Godrej and Boyce, an industrial conglomerate in Mumbai, India, the last known company to still manufacture Typewriters, announced they will cease production of the non-electric typewriter due to increasingly low sales.

The company has fewer that 200 typewriters left, most of which were keyed in Arabic.

Many of us, even in our tech-heavy Generation Y, typed our first school papers on typewriters. It’s easy to criticize our old friend the typewriter for its many flaws — let’s be honest here, who hasn’t sworn at one after a ill-timed tap of the wrong button on a carbon paper form? But the concept of the typewriter paved the way for us to find increasingly more efficient ways to record the written word.

Early versions of typewriters go back as far as the early 1700s when Henry Mill, a British inventor, created a machine that transcribed letters onto parchment. Over the centuries, inventors from all over the world created their own versions of these machines that were used to produce type to typewriters incorporating advancing technology. In the mid 1800s, Charles Thurber, an inventor from Worcester even created a patent of the typewriter that was designed as a dictation aid for the blind community. By the early 1900s, the typewriter had evolved into a design that has had no significant design changes from the (few) typewriters that we see today. With the onset of urbanization and increasing communication needs, typewriters became a very popular tool for the business world.

Eventually, the machines that immortalize printed type into books, manuscripts, and other forms of communication evolved into the arguably more efficient form of a computer.

So let’s all take a moment to mourn the loss of a classic piece of history. Typewriter, you were a savior to all of us with atrocious penmanship, and for that, we will always be grateful. You served us well all those years, but I’m sure you can understand, we simply can’t turn down a computer that also allows us to type and delete as many times as our little hearts desire. Its time for us to move on into the 21st century.

Chocolate fans, your PC game of choice has arrived in the form of Chocolatier by Brighter Minds Media.

Surround yourself with every type of chocolate bar, truffle or delicacy you can possibly imagine, all while having a calorie free experience. Welcome to the world of chocolate — “The Elixir of the Gods.”

Chocolatier challenges you to build a successful worldwide chocolate business empire. Similar to the many tycoon style games but with an original concept, Chocolatier is also an adventure game that brings you on missions all over the world that you must complete in order to propel your business to success.

Picture this game as the love child between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

The game brings you to the year 1880, where Evangeline Baumeister, a famous chocolatier, finds her chocolate company in financial trouble after letting her irresponsible sister take over. Her sister has also lost many of their famous chocolate recipes, and so Evangeline asks you to travel the world to find these recipes and bring the company back up to speed.

In order to find these recipes and re-establish business relationships, you must travel to designated spots all around the globe and meet with many colorful (yet stereotypical) characters who help you find the lost recipes and will guide you towards good deals on purchasing ingredients. Oftentimes these characters will send you on a mission before they hand over the recipes or make a large purchase. They will usually request you to make a delivery or bring a message to a certain person, so it’s important to remember where that person is.

The game can be tricky, as you can only find certain ingredients in specific locations, such as coffee beans only being available to purchase in Mexico (a necessary ingredient for your delicious Colombo Cacao Coffee Caramel Truffles and Dark Chocolate Coffee bars) and special lemons that can only be found in Trinidad. It’s also wise to know what products sell best at certain locations. To be successful you really must get to know the people and characteristics of each location, which is a realistic aspect of managing a thriving business.

As you travel on, you will gradually obtain recipes for increasingly fancy chocolates and your sales profits will increase. As your overall net gain increases you will be able to set up factories in every continent, and expand your business. The challenges lies in the constant need to expand, while simultaneously trying to micromanage such details as how much of each ingredient goes into each chocolate product at all your factories. The good thing is your chocolates sell for an outrageous amount of money and your consumers don’t seem to mind, so the money flows in at a consistent rate.

Chocolatier is a fun and challenging game that does require strategy and the ability to make smart business decisions, mixed in with some brainless, yet amusing missions to complete. This game is safe for dieters and those with an all too dangerous fondness for chocolate, but I can’t make any promises that after hours of staring at those yummy-looking computerized truffles, you won’t be running to your local candy store with an urge to buy out their entire supply.

Quick hits:

Publisher: PlayFirst/Brighter Minds Media
Developer: Big Splash
Platform: PC/MAC CD-ROM
Genre: Edutainment/Adventure
Players: 1

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Welcome to the fashion capital of the world, old Paris!

Here you will find Nancy Drew on her latest thrilling, adventurous, death defying undercover assignment.

As an assistant a fashion designer.

You have been sent on this mission to investigate the recent quirky behavior displayed by Minette, the fashion designer, which has other designers and producers all over the globe concerned. You go undercover as her assistant–no easy feat considering her temper tantrums and irrational behavior has been the cause for a high turnaround rate with assistants.

The game is presented with a “mystery” or “detective” theme where the player investigates the story, finds clues and solves puzzles.

This only mystery surrounding this game is the lack of actual detective work. The undercover role of intern is taken way too literally, as Nancy must complete such mundane tasks as making tea, fixing printers and running errands for the office. Not to mention answering the phone before you get fired after 30 seconds.

These would seem like easy tasks, but of course they’re complicated for the sake of the game.

For instance, the tea must be made with the perfect mixture of herbs, the printer must have the perfect ink alignment, and the errands must be done in a timely fashion to prevent Nancy from losing her “job.”

These tasks can only be completed after solving a logic puzzle, many of which are very challenging if not nearly impossible. In this respect the game can be fun and stimulating, but none of these things are relevant to the big “mystery” regarding Minette.

The theme and style of the game itself may be misrepresented, but overall is enjoyable. Just make sure you look up instructions previous the beginning the game to save yourself a lot of frustration. This coming from a person who usually loses the instructions within 5 seconds of opening the case.

Otherwise, the game also takes quite awhile to install, but the graphics are high-quality and well worth the wait. The background views of the city and the Seine River are beautiful and very impressive for a PC game.

Pat Sajak’s Lucky Letters is a fast-paced word creation puzzle game that combines the concept of his famous TV show "Wheel of Fortune" with more challenging word puzzles in crossword form.

The game is divided into three challenges that are not necessarily unique from one another. They all revolve around the concept of guessing letters in order to solve a word or phrase; the only difference from "Wheel of Fortune" being that you are solving words and phrases in crossword form rather than in fragment or sentence form.

The first game you play is Lucky Letters. You are presented with a blank crossword puzzle and must spin the wheel in order to guess a letter. The wheel selects a random blank spot in the puzzle which you must try and solve. You earn more points when you correctly guess one of the "lucky letter" spots. You are given a hint that is usually helpful when trying to figure out the word or phrase.

These crossword games are very fast paced, with seven difficulty levels that correspond to the days of the week. Monday is the easiest, with Tuesday being more difficult and so on, until you reach the Championship on Saturday. Each day has a puzzle theme.

Lucky 10 is the second game that is unlocked once you master the Lucky Letters game. Lucky 10 is similar to Lucky Letters in format, but more difficult as you try to solve as much of the crossword as possible with only 10 letter guesses.

Lucky Players is the third game that is merely Lucky Letters with 2 player capabilities that you can play with a friend or family member. This is a great idea in theory but may be awkward to play with two people on one computer, as the game does not provide the ability to play your opponents online.

The games are fun and can be mentally stimulating, as you attempt to unscramble words and piece together incomplete phrases. The only levels that are actually challenging are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the earlier days being good only for purposes of learning how to play the game. It is exciting to spin the wheel and find out how much you can earn off each letter guess or word solve.

Pat Sajak plays your peppy yet annoying host who keeps popping out of nowhere to deliver you tips on how to improve you game and makes incredibly corny jokes. The upside is that you can turn off the "tips" mode and make Mr. Sajak go away.

A tale that cannot decide whether it is a sci fi epic, comedy or social satire, “From Other Worlds” is a bold breath of fresh air in a cineomographic business that only turns out movies that are safe and fit into a mold that is guaranteed to bring in the cash.

Joanne (Cara Buono) is a depressed housewife from Brooklyn who is searching for meaning and purpose in her life. Her melancholy comes to a halt one night after an alien encounter leaves her with a mysterious mark above her hip. She attends a UFO support group, yearning to learn more about what happened to her. Here she meets Abraham, (Isaach De Bankol©) who had a similar encounter and bears the same mark as Joanne. Her general boredom and curiosity lead her to join forces with Abraham to investigate this strange coincidence.

Their investigation conveniently falls into place and takes them on a literary ride through Ancient Egypt, where they connect the strange symbol on their bodies to a mysterious scroll that has survived thousands of years and is currently in a New York City museum. In the museum, scientists are preparing to open the scroll and decipher its contents. Joanne and Abraham soon meet their alien friend face-to-face, who explains that they were chosen to save the human race by preventing this scroll from being opened, as it contains information that will unleash chaos and lead to a downfall of society. Joanne and Abraham take his word for it and set off on a cliche mission to save the world, enlisting the help of their wacko friends from the UFO support group.

The plot is unoriginal in its nature, but the approach taken to tell the story is unique. Two strangers from completely different walks of life join together for a common purpose. There is a lot of emphasis placed on their budding friendship and what they learn about each other. The chemistry between Buono and de Bankole is lacking, but it almost makes it more interesting for the audience to watch the two bond not only over their common purpose but how they interact with the other. Buono is very convincing in her role as a bored domestic wife who is simply searching for more, and is a genuine relatable character.

The movie is more philosophical than comical, but there is some clever social commentary. The movie may leave you confused and searching for an answer to the madness you just witnessed, but that may be one of its appeals.

From Other Worlds made a limited release on Jan. 27.

Cartoon Network All-Stars is a collection of four different games, Fast and the Flurrious, Cartoon Cove Mini-Golf, To The Eds-treme Skateboarding, and Dropple. At an average price of $19.99, you are getting a good deal with four uniquely addictive and entertaining games.

Fast and Flurrious welcomes you to the slopes for some snowboard action with the Powerpuff Girls, Bubbles, Blossom, Buttercup and even Mojo Jojo is randomly thrown in there. Here, you race down a snowboard half pipe trying to earn as many points as possible by picking up "power up" pieces and performing tricks in the air on jumps, all the while avoiding trees, rocks, puddles and penguins. You advance to the next round by earning enough points to qualify and not losing all your health due to tumbles.

You can choose a player, a snowboard and the course you want to race. Each Powerpuff Girl has a different level of experience. As a beginner, Bubbles will slowly advance down the course, and the speed gets progressively faster with intermediate Blossom, expert Buttercup, even going as far as Mojo-Jojo, whose level is experience is titled "Bwa-ha-ha," which translates into evilly fast. The courses also vary in difficulty level. The bunny slope is easy and a safe place to practice when first playing the game. You progress through the Black Diamond, Rocky Cliffs, Jump Canyon, Mountain Madness and finally to Glacier Pass, each with a faster speed, more jumps and more obstacles than the previous course.

This game is well suited for all ages as there is a wide range of levels and difficulties. Once you beat a certain level there is room to advance and challenge yourself. The characters and courses are cute and quirky, but the concept of the game itself is limited and can become monotonous. It’s a fun and entertaining game for the first half hour of play.

Cartoon Cove Mini-Golf takes you along nine cartoon-themed holes on a tropical mini-golf island, hosted by cartoon network characters including; Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog and the Powerpuff Girls. After picking from an assortment of colored golf balls you enter the mini-golf island and make your way through the interactive holes, differently themed with their own obstacles. The themes of each hole range from Dexter’s Laboratory to Johnny’s Bravo’s pinball machine to tree houses and beaches.

This is no ordinary game of mini-golf. Each hole poses its own set of obstacles. They become increasingly challenging as you move from hole to hole. It goes from knocking sandbags out of the way in hole one, to avoiding a laser beam that will suck up the ball in hole eight.

The game is difficult at times, as the power and angle you shoot at can be ambiguous. Also, the par for each hole is very conservative and usually difficult to attain, maxing out at par four for holes that seem far more complex than four swings allow. Despite the difficulty, the game is entertaining and a fun spin on the concept of mini-golf. Your assuredly bad score on the first round will make you want to try again for a higher score. You can play on your own or match up two-players.

To the Eds-treme Skateboarding challenges you to sharpen your shredding skills on a crazy skateboard ramp. You must pick up speed skateboarding down one side of the ramp to get as much height as possible on the other side. You gain points by completing tricks and stunts in the air. There’s a catch though: you must land on your feet when you hit the ramp again. You also gain points by catching balloons and birds that are flying high over the ramp. Half the fun is watching how much height your player can get.

Watch out for loose or missing boards though, if you hit them or hit the repairman fixing them you take a fall, which leads to a loss of points and precious time. If you collect enough points you are able to proceed to the next level, which will have new tricks yet more obstacles. With 26 levels, the game keeps you coming back to challenge yourself to reach that next level.

The game has tiny resolution and you only need to use eight buttons on the keyboard to play it. Despite its simplicity it is a fun game as you attempt to send your player into outer space and to do as many fun tricks in the air as possible.

Dropple is a standard puzzle game like Bejeweled where you maneuver colored pieces to have so many in a row or touching each other. Those pieces then disappear but new ones will fall into your puzzle. This is a race against the clock to clear as many pieces as possible before time runs out. In this game the pieces are colorful blobs, keeping consistent with this game’s theme of cartoon cuteness.

In this game you will be visited by such characters as Dexter, Hi Hi Puffy Yum and Billy and Mandy. They will join you in playing four different game modes, each unique to the desire of the player. Some modes are timed, while some have and infinite number of levels to play so you can practice your matching and maneuvering skills. The graphics on this game are very advanced compared to the other three games, and the characters are thoughtfully intertwined with the plot. This game is the most challenging of the three, and is probably aimed for an audience of teenagers and adults.

Overall, this is a neat set of smaller games that will provide ample entertainment.

In Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue, Flo the waitress returns to help her friends save their restaurants. A greedy tycoon named Mr. Big threatens to demolish four quaint, mom and pop style eateries to build a mall. Fresh off her success in Diner Dash 1, Flo is recruited to help out her friends. It’s up to her to provide excellent service and raise enough money for her friends to keep their restaurants in business and keep the greedy tycoon out of the neighborhood.

The setup of the game is almost disappointingly similar to the original Diner Dash. In each level Flo must earn enough money to reach a set quota. If successful, she moves on to the next level. By moving on to higher levels, players can earn money to buy equipment and d¨cor, which will attract more customers. These can consist of new tables, a new countertop, new wallpaper, decorative plants, etc. With each new level the quota is set higher, there are more tables to serve and the patrons come in larger numbers. The challenge is this game is being able to multi-task at a quick pace.

The new features of Diner Dash 2 are new types of customers, who bring an array of complications with them:

• The “Family” consists of Mom, dad, child and baby, which will require a high chair and will make a mess that you need to mop up. If the baby does not have a highchair or waits too long for food or service, it will cry and annoy other patrons.
• The “Cell Phone Addicts” yap on their phone even while they’re eating, and the noise upsets patrons sitting near them
• The “Joggers” come in with headphones on and thus are oblivious to any noise. This makes them the perfect patrons to sit next to cell phone addicts or a crying baby.
• The “Bookworms” are very slow, yet very patient. They like their quiet and so become extremely annoyed if there is noise.

You will also see the business women, girls and seniors from the first game. Each type of patron varies in their likes and dislikes, patience and how well they tip. Becoming familiar with these quirks is very helpful, as you can prioritize your tasks when things become hectic.

In addition to new types of patrons, there are also several new items that make your job easier. You can add a bench to your line, which will keep customers happier when they have to wait for a table. The baby chair and mop help keep the families happy. There is dessert now, which will lead to a bigger tip if the delivery is timely. The most important new item is a phone, which allows you to call one of four staff members to help you out during a rush of patrons. The staff members are; a busboy, who clears the table, a bartender, who serves drinks, a hostess, to talk to people waiting in line and a performer, to lift the moods of the patrons. This can significantly impact the amount of money you make, as you can tend to more than one table at a time, and in this game, speed is everything.

It was good to see this feature; it almost boggles the mind that the first game had no such option of calling in backup. One person cannot cut it with more than six tables.

There are many new sound effects and music, too. Each restaurant is themed differently, from a coffee shop to a pizza parlor, to a Mexican cantina. Each restaurant has a unique d©cor, music and atmosphere, and you can help choose how to improve the restaurant’s aesthetics.

When I first saw the original Diner Dash, I thought it would be more like Rollercoaster or Monopoly Tycoon, where you had to use your wits and strategy skills to actually build and run the business. Another low-budget game, Restaurant Empire, is modeled exactly like that. I was somewhat disappointed to find that the game consisted mostly of taking orders and serving food, with an occasional opportunity to add new decorations. Like its predecessor, Diner Dash 2 tends to be very simple and repetitive, and may be more appealing to a younger audience. For what it is, the game is great mindless fun and the fast pace keeps you on your toes, but the repetitiveness can quickly become boring.

3 Stars.

Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is a word game where you create words out of letters arranged randomly in a 4-by-4 grid, similar to the game Boggle. The only difference is the letters you choose do not need to be adjacent to one another. You can pick from any of the letters in the grid to create a word. The longer the word or the higher the letter value, the more points you’ll earn. (think Scrabble)

The seemingly boring task of creating words from a random assortment of letters is worked into a gripping storyline involving a cute green worm named Lex. Lex is sent on a mission to save Cassandra the Oracle, who is being held captive in one of the books in Lex’s library. Lex is transported into the book with the help of a magic pen and must fight enemies in an effort to reach the end of each chapter. Lex is able to attack his enemies by spelling a word, and the more points he earns, the more damage to the enemy.

The enemy then retaliates and whacks poor Lex. The first person to lose all the health in their heart-o-meter loses the battle.

Lex travels through 30 chapters, each with its own unique theme and set of quirky characters as the enemies. He fights everything from ancient Roman soldiers, to mystical creatures, to sea serpents and pirate ghosts. Each enemy has its own appearance, description and style of fighting.

Lex is rewarded with “treasures” as he defeats enemies along the way and becomes stronger. These treasures include “The Bow of Zyx” which boost points for using the letters X, Y or Z, or the Golden Fleece, which temporarily grants Lex an extra heart during a battle. Lex earns more treasures by defeating the boss at the end of each chapter. Lex’s overall strength will increase, which means his leveling bar will go up. This will help Lex in the next chapter as the enemies grow increasingly more difficult to defeat.

“Bookworm Adventures Deluxe” is an entertaining game that is fun to play and easy to download at Popcap Games. It may seem childish to some, but the actual challenge of searching for words among these random letters can be addicting, especially when there is an mystical creature or pirate enemy killed as a reward! In addition, there is clever humor hidden in parts of the game. While the levels are downloading, instead of saying something cliche like “installing” and “please wait”, the game will display a series of random phrases such as “crying over spilled milk”, “consuming helium”, “not crashing” or “dividing by 0.” This game may be something worth trying while you are bored at work one day.

4 Stars.