NEWS
By Brittany Levine, brittany.levine@latimes.com | October 17, 2013
The storage units look like arcade graveyards. The machines are unplugged, lined up against the wall and the marquees that once flashed, inviting people to play Ms. Pacman or Galaga, now look more like gravestone inscriptions, dusty and scratched. The city of Glendale has owned the roughly 50 arcade machines for nearly three years and officials want to get rid of them. The problem is, they can't because of a state law. When Glendale bought the building that housed Video West Arcade across from the Americana at Brand three years ago for the proposed Museum of Neon Art, the former owner sold them everything for about $1 million - the building, the arcade machines, cashier equipment, even a gumball machine and a microwave oven.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Michael Miller michael.miller@latimes.com | July 14, 2013
Austin Wintory doesn't care to participate in debates about whether video games count as art. But if anyone corners him about it Wednesday when he joins the Pacific Symphony as a guest conductor, he'll have a couple of powerful friends to back him up. One is the voting bloc of the Recording Academy, which a few months ago made Wintory the first composer to snare a Grammy nomination for a game score. Another is the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which around the same time added 14 games to its collection - including "flOw," a project Wintory co-created while a student at USC. In recent years, the medium's increasing sophistication has caused many to question whether it can stand alongside novels, movies and other venerable forms.
THE818NOW
June 6, 2012
It's no surprise that Warner Bros. has video games with "Batman" and "Middle Earth" in the titles coming out this year, since "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Hobbit" are the studio's two biggest remaining movie releases of 2012. What is surprising is that the games have virtually nothing to do with the films beyond their titles. Stung by poor sales across the industry for video games closely tied to movies -- including Warner's own "Green Lantern" and "Happy Feet Two" last year -- Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is this year taking an entirely different approach.
THE818NOW
October 20, 2011
With the new Batman video game Arkham City , a Hollywood studio may finally have a true interactive blockbuster and also the respect of notoriously skeptical gamers. On sale today, Arkham City from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has garnered unanimously rave notices, ranking as the best reviewed video game of the year on the compilation site Metacritic. Sales expectations are well above the 4.3 million units that the game's predescessor, Arkham Asylum, sold in 2009.
THE818NOW
October 18, 2011
"The Dark Knight Rises" doesn't hit movie theaters for nine months, but Batman is at the heart of what may just be Warner Bros. ' most important release of the fall. With the launch Tuesday of video game Arkham City, a sequel to 2009 hit Arkham Asylum that lets players control the Caped Crusader, the studio's Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unit has one of the best-reviewed and most anticipated titles of the year. It's expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
NEWS
By Megan O'Neil, megan.oneil@latimes.com | March 2, 2011
A 2008 Crescenta Valley High graduate has been nationally recognized for her work in developing an interactive game that encourages senior citizens to exercise by dancing. Sarah Ferraro, now a junior at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, has been awarded an honorable mention in the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards 2011 competition for her work, which was backed by a $40,000 grant from Google. The recognition comes from the Computing Research Assn., which hosts the annual competition as a means to further promote its mission of strengthening research and education in the field of computer science.
BUSINESS
By Zain Shauk | January 7, 2010
Local entertainment giants DreamWorks Animation and the Walt Disney Co. stoked growing buzz about the future of video entertainment Thursday after each announced it would begin preparing films for in-home 3-D viewing on Blu-ray discs. The announcements came as 3-D video technology took center stage during morning sessions at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where several firms announced new products geared toward in-home three-dimensional entertainment. Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation announced late Wednesday that it planned to capitalize on the popularity of 3-D movies at theaters worldwide by forming a “3-D Alliance” with Samsung Electronics America and Technicolor to deliver a “complete 3-D home entertainment solution in 2010.
LOCAL
By Max Zimbert | December 9, 2009
LA CRESCENTA ? Second-grader Max Mesmik cut to the chase. ?Has anyone ever shot you?? he asked Los Angles County Sheriff Deputy Jorge Valdivia. The officer replied that he was lucky he?d never been shot. ?They try to run away,? Valdivia said. ?But we catch them.? Max was one of about 20 Monte Vista second-graders who were given a tour of the Briggs Avenue sheriff?s station Tuesday morning. ?They get to see how it all works,? said their teacher, Bryant Stephan.
NEWS
By Max Zimbert | November 13, 2009
Madison Davis’ hands moved feverishly as she assembled one stack of three cups, another of six, and another of three. And in three swift motions, the fifth-grader disassembled her stacks and tagged her teammate — all in a few seconds. “I like that it’s very fun, and once you learn and keep doing it, you can race your friends,” she said. “It’s a sport because of speed and the hand-eye coordination.” Madison was one of about 300 Monte Vista Elementary School fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders who were part of a worldwide effort to set the world record for cup stacking.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Yasmin Nouh | July 22, 2009
Glendale native Kamran Jahadi is like any other seventh-grader: He likes to play video games. He picked up his favorite hobby when he was in second grade, Kamran, 11, said. Among his favorite games are Mario, Naruto and Sly Cooper, most of which are role-playing games. But Kamran is no ordinary video gamer; he will compete in this year’s 2009 Pokémon Video Game World Championships from Aug. 14 to 16. He qualified for this competition after placing in the top 32 at the National Video Game Championships in St. Louis during the last weekend of June.