Games Fleadh 2014 video round-up

Games Fleadh 2014 took place at LIT Thurles in County Tipperary on Wednesday. This year's event wasn't without it's problems as it conincided this year with GDC which runs over the weekend.

 Many of the Irish development teams who were expected to speak couldn't make it as they prepared to fly to San Francisco.

 The annual Games Fleadh awards, in conjunction with Engineers Ireland, was posponed as a result but the student competition and industry talks went ahead as planned. And some of what was on offer was impressive.

Last year's Game Studio Ireland Challenge College Cup Champions Joseph Bentley & Ger Stone, or Alt Tab, won this year's Imagine Cup in Dublin last week. They were on site to show off their game CavernNauts. Other established developers like Exgamers Studio, with Source Control, and Atom Split Games with The Power Game were on site.

 Here's what else I saw on my travels.

LIT Thurles team take games prize at Imagine Cup

Building 3, Microsoft.
Photo: Wiki Commons

At lunchtime in Microsoft’s Sandyford offices in Dublin this Tuesday teams of young people gathered in corners, and around half eaten sandwiches, to talk in hushed tones. This was their last chance to prepare before the judging started.

The Imagine Cup is Microsoft’s annual competition for software innovation by students from across the Island. I had come for the games but stayed for some of the extraordinary apps on offer.

After a morning spent casually talking about their ideas in the brightly lit presentation room at the rear of Microsoft’s Building 3, the reality of the situation had set in. They were here from colleges across the country to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges from academia and industry.

These were the people who could take their ideas from a pastime to a product that they could sell. This is a high-stakes competition, and despite the shy smiles you could tell the pressure was on.

Stephen Howell (@saorog) is Academic Engagement Manager at Microsoft. He organised this year’s competition and he agrees that the set up is an intimidation one - “This is the only way to really put them on the spot.” he said as he showed me into the judging rooms.

Microsoft Imagine Cup judging in Dublin today

The Imagine Cup is Microsoft's annual innovation competition. And today is D-day for the teams involved.

Each of the teams has been busy developing their ideas - an innovative piece of software running on Microsoft's platrorms and today they need to pitch their work to real judges from industry.

Submissions closed in early February and today the top teams in Microsoft's three categories - Games, Innovation and World Citizenship - will compete.

I'll be going along to see what Ireland's young tech creatives are working on.

New Laptop - New Gaming

Laptop review - HT Spectre XT
September 2012 

That first experience with a new piece of hardware is a rare pleasure. But it's all too easily ruined by unintuitive or unnecessary software. Booting up a new Windows 7 PC can be harrowing. 

First Impressions

The XT's chamfered rear gives it a distinctive appearance
Photograph: Peadar Grogan

The design of HP's sleek new Ultrabook is something of a revelation for Windows hardware. Lest you confuse it with one of the company's range of new ultra-thin 'Sleekbook' laptops, here’s a brief introduction: 

The Spectre XT is 18mm thick at its deepest point. The brushed aluminium lid and palm-rest are cool to the touch. The notebook’s underside is coated with a pleasing rubberized finish. At just under 1.5kg, it’s a notebook light enough to carry and reassuringly easy to hold. 

The laptop has a subtle wedge shape, tapering from its distinctive chamfered rear to its chrome-finished front. Unfortunately weight distribution is off. The laptop can’t be opened one-handed, but the neatly recessed touchpad provides a natural gripping point for your fingers on the front of the device.