Its on-screen dashboard fed players real-time information about fuel

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the final quarter being dropped into the worlds first commercial video game, for it was in May of 1979 that Galaxy Game was removed from the Coffee House café at Stanfords Tresidder student union. I spent a good part of five years feeding coins into Galaxys wondrous console, and in return it taught me and several other Silicon Valley denizens valuable lessons that laid the groundwork for much of what we have done since.I met Galaxy Game in the Summer of 1974. My family had just moved to moncler mabel jacket black Palo Alto and I had no friends, so my brother and I rode our bikes around the Stanford campus looking for things to do. I was in 8th grade and the bowling alley got boring quickly, but next door, amidst students and lattes (also a novelty at the time) stood two large consoles, side by side, with odd-looking little black screens. Behind those screens sat a DEC PDP-11/20 powering a riveting game built on a simple concept: use a joystick and a couple of buttons (one for torpedoes, one for hyperspace) to destroy the other spaceships. Best of all, unlike its descendants such as Asteroids, Galaxy was a multi-player game. Those opposing spaceships were controlled by the people sitting next to you, and if you won the game you kept your quarter.I knew a good deal when I saw one, so I hung around the Coffee House and got to know the games co-creator, a Stanford grad named Bill Pitts. That's how I got my first job in high-tech: in exchange for keeping the consoles clean, I got a few dollars per day and a bunch of insider tips about how to play. For example, if your torpedo was on course to destroy an opponents ship and that opponent escaped into hyperspace, you could follow him there, shoot again, and destroy him. Imagine the face of a graduate student who thinks he has outwitted that annoying kid, only to find when he releases his finger from the hyperspace button that his ship is nothing but fragments of white floating randomly into the blackness of space. Nothing on Wii matches it!Galaxy's lessons have stayed with me. Its design was simple and easy to use but with the depth to satisfy the most committed players. moncler quincy jacket chocolate brown nylon , torpedoes, and location, my first inkling that data is critical to making smart decisions.Finally, in Galaxy achieving your goals sometimes required a jump to hyperspace. My opponents thought hyperspace was a last resort, a refuge from a losing path. I discovered that it was a way to win high risk and scary, but with a huge payoff. So when in doubt, press the button and make the jump! At worst youll lose a quarter, but at best youll rule the Galaxy.Posted by Jonathan Rosenberg, SVP, Product Management|||5/08/2009 03:47:00 PMWhen I was about three years old, my mom and I had a game. Mom would show me things around the house. "Look, Scotto, this is a picture," she said. "Can you eat it?" I asked. "No, honey," she said. "Look, Scotto, this is a flower." "Can you eat it?" I said.And so the story went: With everything she pointed out, I asked if you could eat it. Now, I'm a chef here at Google. I feel lucky that I fell in love with food and cooking if not, who knows what I would be having for lunch!This Mother's Day, you could get your mom a bouquet of flowers, or new earrings, but, well, you can't eat those things. Plus, making a gift at home is a nice personal gesture that doesn't break the bank. With that in mind, some of the other Google chefs and I put together a brunch menu full of recipes designed to pamper moms on their special day. You can download all of them in this PDF, and I've also copied the most mouthwatering recipe below (sure, it's decadent, but isn't that the point?).Molten Chocolate CakesIngredients5 oz chocolate, semisweet5 oz butter3 eggs3 egg yolks1 cups powdered sugar, sifted cup all-purpose flour1 tsp vanilla extractProcedurePreheat oven to 325 F. Place chocolate and butter over a double boiler; stir until melted. Let cool slightly. In the meantime, whisk eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla in a large mixer. Slowly add the sugar, then the chocolate mixture and flour. Coat ¾ cup ramekins with butter, then pour the batter into the ramekins up to the rim. Place in oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove moncler quincy jacket black nylon from oven; run knife along edges of ramekin; invert onto a plate. Serve with vanilla whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream. Makes about 6 cakes.We hope your mom and you enjoy brunch this Sunday!Posted by Scott Giambastiani, Executive Chef|||5/06/2009 12:50:00 PMOver the weekend Larry Page delivered the commencement address at his alma mater and encouraged grads to "get a little crazy." Video of his speech was recently posted and we wanted to share it with our readers. You can also read the full transcript.Posted by Susan Straccia, Google Blog team