In the spirit of trying new things (of which there will be more and more in the coming weeks), we’ve asked Atomic editor David Hollingworth to give us an update on the main attractions of the latest mag that so effortlessly mixes the joy of gaming with the SCIENCE of tech… More »
Yes, they still print magazines. And this month, Australian hardcore PC gaming mag Atomic is celebrating its 100th issue.
Time to kill flying to Computex in Taipei? Being cradled in the comfort of an Airbus A380? Why not whip out a notebook and blast away terrorists in a multiplayer game of Counter-Strike?
The above photo shows Josh Collins (tech writer for Atomic, who I bossed around during my last couple of months as editor), Nick Ross (editor, PC Authority) and an Atomic sales girl doing just that. Maybe not the most politically correct thing to do on a plane, but hey, I wouldn’t stop them.
Atomic fights aircraft terrorism [Atomic] More »
Previous coverage: Atomic Live 07: The World GameMaster Tournament Atomic Live 07: The Cars Atomic Live 07: The Star Wars Atomic Live 07: The Cosplay
Against the back wall of the Badgery Pavilion sat a row of PC systems, their components bared to the ravages of the outside world. Their only goal in life: To hit ludicrous speeds at stupidly cold temperatures.
Arguably Australia’s top overclocker, Kayl, was fighting the good fight against the laws of physics and electro-migration. His system was comprised of a GeForce 8800 GTS and an Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700.
Attached to the 8800 was a custom-made copper tube, which Kayl would, from time to time, top up with dry ice as it sublimed into overclocking hell. According to Kayl, the video card’s GPU sat most of the time at -70 degrees Celsius. Tweaking the clocks, he managed to get the core speed to 780MHz and the memory to 1.92GHz – about 40% and 30% over stock, respectively.
As for the CPU, well… that’s Kayl’s speciality. Using his own, hand-made cascade cooling unit, he managed to get 4.76GHz out of the QX6700 at -100 degree Celsius, which equates to a 55% overclock. According to Kayl, 4.9GHz is possible on liquid nitrogen.
A few pictures of Kayl after the jump. More »
Previous coverage: Atomic Live 07: The Cars Atomic Live 07: The Star Wars Atomic Live 07: The Cosplay
In the background (or foreground, depending on who you talk to) of Atomic Live 2007 was the ASUS World GameMaster Tournament. If you’re not familiar with ASUS in the competitive gaming scene, don’t worry, you shouldn’t be. Along with Gigabyte and Foxconn, ASUS is one of the largest manufacturers of PC components in the world. It makes everything from video cards to laptops, so it was more than prepared to put together a competitive PC LAN, regardless of how unusual it might be for a Taiwanese component business to have its own gaming tournament, rather than just sponsoring an established one.
For Atomic Live, WGT consisted of two games, Quake 4 for singles and Counter-Strike: Source for teams. Junglist and Bajo from the ABC’s Good Game used their extensive knowledge of all things gaming, and general suave coolness, to commentate the games and host the regular prizes draws between matches.
The finals started at about 6PM, and were incredibly tense to watch. The Quake 4 final came right down to the wire, the game tied at 4-4 during the closing moments, until “Zeal0r” managed to score a few quick frags to take the win.
For the CS: Source comp, team “Advantage” took home the prize, proving that it did indeed have some sort of leg up in the proceedings, even if it was just mad skillz.
Hit the jump for the pictures.
(Special thanks to Lambo, the fantastic bloke who oversaw WGT, for the providing me with the names of the winners.) More »
Previous coverage: Atomic Live 07: The Cars
Atomic Live 07 was not without its cosplay element… as all good gaming and technology events are destined to have. The most visible during Live however was this bunch of professionals, dressed as various characters from George Lucas’ Star Wars universe.
Actually, one of them is completely out of place, but I’ll leave it up to you to figure out who it is. And no, it’s not the guy in the middle. That’s me actually, and I’m totally mugging the scene.
Anyway, I found the courage to approach the bearded Jedi knight, who was kind enough to inform me that himself and his compatriots were members of Novus Ordo (latin for “New World Order”), a costume club that I imagine gathers on a regular basis to strut about in the latest Mandalorian fashions.
Close up shots after the jump. More »
Here starts the Atomic Live 2007 coverage!
Live 07 was held on the rather sunny Saturday of October 20, inside the Badgery Pavilion at Sydney Olympic Park. It was labelled a tech and gaming expo, and on both fronts it delivered. Rough attendance numbers on the day were about 1200 – I’m not sure if they hit that high, but the venue was always busy.
To kick off the first in a batch of posts are three snaps of cars that were present at the event. No, they didn’t move much while they were there; they were more inclined to sit looking pretty, or challenge onlookers to figure out how they actually got inside the pavilion. Pictures after the jump!
Oh, and bonus virtual cookie if you can perfectly ID these vehicles, because my knowledge of cars is about as extensive as my experience with offshore oil rigging. Which is to say infinitesimal. More »
That’s right folks, Atomic is holding the second of its quasi-yearly tech and gaming events at Olympic Park this Saturday. Specifically the Badgery Pavilion.
What can you expect at Live? Hardware vendors such as Gigabyte, ASUS, AMD and more will be showing their wares, along with Ubisoft, who will have PCs equipped with GRAW 2 out in force.
Live is also host to ASUS World GameMaster Tournament (hope I got that right, the name is in the habit of changing), and you’ll get to meet science fiend Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (also hard to spell) and the guys from the ABC’s Good Game (not so hard to spell).
There is, of course, loads more going on at this tricksy event, so head on over to the Atomic website for more info.
Atomic Live 2007 [Official site] More »
We recently talked to Tim Best about his departure from the editor’s position at PC Powerplay and his subsequent move to Perth games developer Interzone. Now, we have news that another veteran games journo is looking to greener pastures, with Ben Mansill announcing on the Atomic forums that he’ll be leaving the tech/gaming mag.
I’ve recently been offered a good position at another publishing company, to help drive and grow its games titles and sites. It’s a step for me that I need to take. I need to do new things, around new people, and just have a massive change of scene for the sake of it. The longer I stay here the less likely it is I’ll ever want to leave, but life’s short and about variety of experience.
All the best and good luck Ben. Having worked with Ben for close to five years on Atomic, I can vouch for the fact that he’s a top bloke. He’s done excellent work with the magazine and its community, and before that, PC Powerplay, so there’s no doubt he’ll keep the trend going.
A new beginning [Atomic forums] More »
