Audio Radar peripheral helps hard of hearing gamers

Audio Radar brings directional sound to hearing-impaired gamers

The Audio Radar consists of six LEDs that can be attached to a monitor, and then light up to indicate what direction a sound is coming from, offering the benefits of directional audio to players who are hard of hearing.

The LEDs flash to reveal sound cues such as footsteps or gunfire, and can also be customized with different colors, brightness and patterns.

• The Audio Radar project launches on IndieGoGo on October 15th
• Will support PC, PlayStation and Xbox
• Preorders will cost $299, while the retail price will be $379
• Works best with 7.1 surround and as little ambient noise as possible

Accessibility: This is the first dedicated hardware of its kind designed to let people with hearing loss interact more easily with games, and the developers have just completed 18 months of testing. Asus offers a somewhat similar software-based solution.

Limitations: The peripheral relies on 7.1 surround sound to pick out individual sounds from the mix, and while 5.1 surround will work it might result in false positives the same way ambient noise can.

Which Japanese film series did Asmik Ace adapt into a videogame?

a) Tomie
b) The Ring
c) Battles without Honor or Humanity
d) Ju-On

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Pokémon Go gets spooky on October 15th

The Pokémon Go Halloween schedule has been revealed, and a spooky two-part event begins on October 15th and lasts until October 31st alongside the Halloween Cup.

If you'd rather enjoy some papercraft, you can download templates inspired by the upcoming Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. You can also enjoy the Twitch Rivals ft. Pokémon Go event today at 3:00pm PDT.

Pokémon Go

• Halloween Mischief Part 1: Creepy Companions (October 15th-22nd)
  • Themed around Psychic- and Poison-type Pokémon
  • Galarian Slowking debuts
  • Misunderstood Mischief Special Research unlocks next part
  • Halloween Mischief Pikachu will appear in wild
  • 1 star raids: Galarian Slowpoke, Murkrow, Scraggy, Yamask, and Espurr
  • 3 star raids: Alolan Raichu, Sableye, Banette, Halloween Driflbim
  • 5 star raids: Altered Forme Giratina
  • Mega raids: Mega Gengar
  • 7km eggs: Spinarak, Misdreavus, Shuppet, Chingling, Litwick, Galarian Yamask and Golett
• Halloween Mischief Part 2: Ghoulish Pals (October 22nd-31st)
  • Themed around Ghost-type Pokémon
  • Phantump, Trevenant, Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist debuts
  • New size mechanic introduced with Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist
  • Misunderstood Mischief Special Research unlocks next part
  • Halloween Mischief Pikachu will appear in wild
  • 1 star raids: Murkrow, Yamask, Galarian Yamask, Phantump, Average Size Pumpkaboo
  • 3 star raids: Alolan Marowak, Banette, Halloween Drifblim, Lampent
  • 5 star raids: Darkrai
  • Mega raids: Mega Absol
  • 7km eggs: Spinarak, Misdreavus, Shuppet, Litwick, Phantump, Galarian Yamask and Golett
• Pokémon Go Battle League shifts to Great League
• Halloween Cup (October 15th – November 2nd)
  • Poison-, Bug-, Ghost-, Dark-, and Fairy-type only

Pokémon Masters EX

• Midnight Spookfest story event (October 14th)
  • Sync pairs: Morty & Banette and Caitlin & Sableye

Community delves into ZebraEngine Saturn emulator

The determined crew at GBAtemp have extracted parts of City Connection’s Sega Saturn emulator ZebraEngine from various Switch and PlayStation 4 games.

The group discovered how to inject other Saturn titles into the emulator, and have had great results. The emulator still suffers from some input lag, but it seems possible to make it general-purpose with a bit of work.

Ancient origins: The team at GBAtemp is pretty sure that ZebraEngine is a variant of SSF, a closed-source Sega Saturn emulator first developed 20 years ago.

Mostly good: The group is continuing their experiments by injecting a variety of Saturn titles to find out what features are missing for full compatibility with the entire library. There are already some games that run flawlessly.

Paradox Interactive DLC bundle sale

The Paradox Interactive Build Your Own DLC Bundle lets you pick and mix from Paradox's vast library of DLC for most of its major products.

Europe Universalis 4, Hearts of Iron 4, Crusader Kings II & III, Stellaris, Cities Skylines and Surviving Mars are all part of the promotion. Buy 3 or more to unlock the full 65% off discount!

• Try The Jackbox Party Pack 6 game trial on Switch Online until October 19th
• Epic Games now credits Innersloth's Among Us as the obvious inspiration for Fortnite’s Impostors mode
• Alan Wake Remastered is coming to Switch since it has been rated for the platform by ESRB
• Nvidia DLLS support expanded to Baldur's Gate 3 as 10 more games gets the DLSS treatment, including Back 4 Blood
• Beyond a Steel Sky dev diary showcases art while its creators talk about their inspirations and approach

Which Japanese film series did Asmik Ace adapt into a videogame?

ANSWER: Carmen!

The Ring popularized a lot of horror archetypes like scary long-haired girls and spooky killer VHS tapes, but how do you bring those to a videogame? The short answer is to rip off Resident Evil and mix in some Matrix. At least that's the route Asmik Ace chose when bringing The Ring: Terror's Realm to Dreamcast.

The game stars Meg Raimann of the CDC trying to deal with a deadly computer virus that can infect people, and Meg must venture into virtual reality to solve the mystery. Suffice to say neither fans nor critics were particularly impressed with the interpretation, and the game is generally forgotten now.

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey. If you have any feedback or news tips for the team, please email us!