Monday, October 27, 2008

FantasyJam

Please, if you care at all, visit my website and post in the forum. I really need some activity there. The site has my blog, which is updated frequently, but the really kewl stuff includes a chat room, forum, and video game reviews. There's also a bunch of Flash animations and games available, and you can leave comments on practically everything.

Again, visit my website at http://www.fantasyjam.net

Saturday, September 27, 2008

My Blog Is Moving

I'm using my own site to host my personal blog at http://www.fantasyjam.net/blog/1 and I must say it's less of a hassle than Blogger. You could start a blog on my site, too, if you like.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Captain D

I was hired at the new Captain D's near here. I'm supposed to get ready and start sometime in October. The hours will be random but always during the daytime.

This is a second job. My primary job is one I'm not even supposed to reveal to anyone, because I signed the whole NDA thing and am under contract. However, it is a telecommuting job, and it pays very well.

Moving on, though, this Captain D's job is uncertain. I'm hired, yes, but I won't be working much right away, and I have to go through a two-day training class before I can start. I'm not sure if I will even be paid for the training, probably not, and it seems like I will be competing with a lot of people to keep my job.

My ultimate goal with this job is to get a minimum of 6 hours in each week. I will get $6.75 per hour, so multiply that by 6, and yes, I have $40! After two weeks, I'd be paid $81, just enough money to pay for a new cell phone, I think. The cell phone is a must, because I will have to call for a ride whenever I get off work. I may get a cell phone before that time. I just have to wait and see what happens.

Site Undergoing Changes

Go to http://www.fantasyjam.net

The site is now using Drupal. I still need to set a few things up and decorate everything with my own layout (instead of the Drupal default look), but I believe the site is going to be better than it was before.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Arkham Asylum

Go HERE and enter the sweepstakes to have your own likeness in an upcoming Batman game!

Monday, September 15, 2008

I'm Josh, and I'm a sad, sad human. So what?

PurrCrabs, from Syboard, actually said this (look in title) in the shoutbox. I'm sad, yes, mostly because my life sucks, so I won't argue with him. I do manage to stay happy-looking everyday, and I rarely complain about anything, so you can't honestly say I'm a crybaby or even that I'm lazy.

Moving on, I was asked by several people, least of which, Sui, about my daily schedule, because I switch my regular internet habits constantly. Sometimes, I'm on AIM from 3am to 5pm, never idle. Other times, I'm not on AIM at all or idling from 9pm to 12pm, and I frequently log into AIM and back out.

All these frantic habits are causes by my lack of sleep, poor eating habits, bad hygiene, and common work-related problems. I'm out of school, and I tried being a night worker, but that wasn't working out, so I started a daytime job, which is still proving to be difficult (due to lack of work), and I'm definitely not a daytime person.

If I could be active at night, making all the noise I want, working whenever, I would be in bliss.

That is not the case, and I'm sure my schedule isn't even interesting, but you can look at it if you like...

12am - 3am: play games, work on website, do whatever, because I'm bored and absolutely cannot sleep. Never could sleep at these times, not even when I was in school.

4am - 6am: sleep

6 - 7am: wake up, drink something (usually just tap water) and go back to sleep

7 - 9am: sleep

9 - noon: breakfast (rarely), feed dog, shower (every other day), look for work, and if I have work, do it.

noon - 3pm: watch my little brother, study whatever I feel like reading (story or coding or even just a picture or song), write notes for small story ideas, lose most of the notes accidentally, feed the dog... all at random times.

3pm - 5pm: waste time, usually watching my little brother... yell at brother for making messes, be relieved when Dad gets here to take over, watch the clock.

5pm - 7pm: read stuff, take out trash, do laundry, eat dinner, discuss maybe watching a movie but never actually watch anything, snack on leftovers while cleaning the kitchen.

7pm - midnight: I call this my true free time. I'm never really bothers at this period of the day, and most chores are done. I usually feed the dog again at this point and sometimes take the trash to the curb. During this time, I post on my blogs and journals, play a few video games, and usually find creative projects to work on. Sometimes, however, I just play around with the computer and post on forums.

Ubuntu Intrepid Alpha 5

I boldly upgraded to an upgrade only a few have upgraded to thus far. Okay, bad Star Trek rip-off, but I upgraded from Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04 LTS) to Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10), and it fixed and improved so much!

PCSX finally works, but pSX still won't open. PCSX is my emulator of choice, anyway. I use PCSXbox on my Xbox, and it works great, so I may very well play PSX games on PCSX, as well. I already played Brave Fencer Musashi to check the performance level of PCSX, and I was wowwed.

The Windows driver for my wireless card is no longer necessary. The card was basically plug-and-play, so yay! This saved me a lot of time, because I have a lot of trouble getting Windows drivers installed. Well, I think the only proprietary driver I need is the one to make my ATI card work. I may try the open source alternative, though, because ATI has bad, very bad, customer support, especially for Linux users.

Current Ubuntu Hardy users may want to upgrade to Intrepid right now.
To do so, just open a terminal window and type "update-manager -d" without quotes. It will check for updates like it normally would, but it won't ignore anything. At the top of the updates list will be the newest version of Ubuntu.

The upgrade to Intrepid isn't perfect at the moment. I had to fix packages (redownload them) after installing, so I'm sure a clean installation (via CD/DVD) would be better for newcomers. Ubuntu Intrepid is scheduled to be released in October, so look forward to it, and don't give up hope for Linux!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Shadow: the Cat

Hey, loyal readers!

I thought I would take a picture of him while I was in Windows. My LifeCam doesn't work in Ubuntu. Shame on Microsoft for giving me a free webcam that requires Windows! Hehee....

I'm making a few new friends via CraigsList, too. I met a cross-dresser, a Microsoft executive (or so he says), and even a Christian version of myself, minus the nice typing skills. I'm keeping them on my GMail contacts as casual chit-chatters or pen-pals.

I'll be posting a few personal images on SheezyArt as well. I have neglected my artistic talents a bit recently, and I really need to let loose a mighty rawr every once and again. I've already done that once about two weeks ago with the Nanaki fan art. If you don't know who Nanaki is, he's the red lion with the flaming tail and the insane amounts of jewelry.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Part-Time Tele-Commuting Job

I have been crazily replying to CraigsList entries for a while, and an actual opportunity actually presented itself. I'm now a member of the support staff at a service for Flash-based work. Basically, I help people with their Flash problems, be it coding or basic technical problems. I can't divulge any more than that, because I would be in violation of the NDA.

I'm not counting on this job to last a very long time, and I don't expect much of a workload, so I'm still actively searching for a job.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

New motivation: Ubuntu.

I'm slowly moving all my development into the Ubuntu community. From now on, all the games I create will work in Ubuntu and Windows, possibly Mac. Currently, the only games I made which work in Ubuntu or on a Mac are my old Flash games.

Anyway, I'm still looking for good animation software. Here's the alternatives I found for Ubuntu and what I'm still missing:

Avast: available for Ubuntu as well but not necessary and doesn't monitor the system. I could also use Clam, which is a native Linux app, but, if you're serious about safety, Clam doesn't monitor your system. Nothing monitors the system in Linux. It just isn't necessary, because you have complete control of what runs and what doesn't. Basically, Linux monitors itself.
Blender: It actually works better in Ubuntu. The game engine is still a little confusing, and shadowing is not supported in stand-alone runtimes, so you need to use textures for everything in your game projects.
DirectX: I can use OpenGL instead. There are plenty of open source OpenGL-powered 3D engines to pick from, and I have my eyes on Ogre, using Blender as my modeler. Any recommendations are welcome.
Flash: no good alternative yet. You have PyGame for programming games, but that's not helpful for animations. I tried Flash4Linux and all the apps based on it, but those require some sort of compiler, and I don't really know how to get them working.
Photoshop: GIMP works well, but I'm open to change. If I can get Photoshop CS3 to work in Wine, I'll go that route. Otherwise, I think GIMP could grow on me. I'm also considering Inkscape for vector art.
Runescape: works in Ubuntu. I don't play it, though. If I ever get bored, though, I know I can start a character on there and hack away at trees.
Sony Vegas: no good alternative yet. I need a good video sequencer for music videos and simple editing. I'm hoping for some transition effects and color filters.
ToonBoom: Synfig Studio is pretty good, but it's still in early stages of development.

Flash isn't available in Ubuntu (just the browser plug-in), but I can use Wine to run a very old version. I need to find an alternative to Flash CS3 for animation, but I can code 2D games in Python/PyGame.

I hope you consider moving to Ubuntu. It's free, and it's more secure than Windows. Plus, almost every good piece of software is either on the installation DVD or add/remove menu!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Yahoo!Lottery?

Days ago, my cousin told me he won $200,000 from the Yahoo!Lottery program. I told him it had to be a scam, but he refused to believe that fact, and I gave him the best advice I could: Ask Yahoo! itself.

Here's a fairly old (but accurate) Yahoo!Mail help topic: CLICK!
In that topic, the question was about Yahoo!Lottery. There is no Yahoo! lottery, meaning they don't give anyone money, but there is a lottery site run by Yahoo!, and it's located here: http://lottery.yahoo.com

Again, Yahoo! does not give you money, and they wouldn't ask for money to do so, either. Sorry, cousin, but you've been scammed. I hope you didn't send that $200!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Video Game Bash #7: Microsoft Exclusives

My last weekly Video Game Bash was in May. Sorry to anyone who kept wondering when the next one would be posted. I was tired of bashing games, so I took a very long, very unnecessary break. I'm back with Video Game Bash #7:

I hate how Microsoft throws words like "Only on XBOX" out without any meaning behind them. It was a marketting ploy, a good one at that. Sure, Halo was exclusive to the Xbox, but it didn't stay that way, not even for a very long time, and it wasn't brought to PC via an emulator, either!

Wait, I have to revert what I said, "and it wasn't brought to PC via an emulator," to "and it was coming to the PC via hackers until Microsoft decided to port the game to Windows Vista."

I mention this because of a now abandoned project, CXBX, which was planned to convert Xbox XBE files to Windows EXE files. It was something Microsoft didn't like, because they want money above anything else, and Halo was probably already planned to be ported eventually... so Microsoft completely disregarded the exclusiveness of Halo on the Xbox and brought us a slightly improved Halo for PC, which also had an optional modding studio called Halo: Custom Edition.

Thanks, Bungie. I bought Halo for my Xbox, when it was brand new, and I never saw any new content for it; these PC players got frequent updates and a huge modding community with an official level editor! Why can't I have the new features, too?!

This didn't end with Halo. No, this continued through Halo 2. Once Halo PC was released, Xbox got a bit of a consolation prize, Halo 2. It sure was great... for a few hours. Unfortunitely, Halo 2 didn't have a level editor, but it did look better and have greatly improved weapon assortment. Also, the vehicles were breakable, stealable, and boostable, wait, isn't that the same as stealing?

Anyway, I bought Halo 2 on its release date, just so I could be one of the cool guys for a short while. I even got the Limited Edition version of the game, which really didn't offer anything special other than the neat case. After that, I realized I didn't like the campaign. I was really only playing a multiplayer fragfest. I already had that from Unreal!

Moving along, I kept hoping for Live updates to fall in my lap, since Halo 2 was able to be played online, but I didn't pay for Xbox Live. No way! I had XLink Kai. This is where Halo 2 shined. For hours, every single day, I would chat with 6-15 other players in the matches, and some mysterious ghost character would show up. He would appear, disappear, he never walked, he even threw grenades backwards and always stuck someone. It was freaky, but I was a geek, so I knew something fishy was going on. I got into the modding community and learned all I could about softmodding my console, just to modify Halo 2. I was really inspired, I know.

Long story short, I modded Halo 2 (even made a few Halo 3 style weapons), but it was very difficult and nowhere near what you got to accomplish with Halo: Custom Edition. After a while of being bored of Halo 2, even after modding it, an expansion pack (the Multiplayer Map Pack) was released both on Live as a download and in retail stores as a DVD with some rather dull video content as a bonus. It was pretty neat, but it didn't entertain me at all, because it was pretty much just for multiplayer matches and didn't even offer any interesting gameplay changes; no new weapons or anything!

Once Halo 3 was announced, all Halo 2 players shit their pants at the thought of how awesome it probably wouldn't be. However, it was the driving force in Xbox 360 sales, and I can't argue that Halo 3 is bad, because it is actually quite awesome. The point of my saying this is simply: I don't have a Xbox 360, so I was actually happy to hear that Halo 2 was coming to PC. Unfortunitely, it was being made specifically for Windows Vista, which is the biggest pile of shit I ever saw... and I see a lot of shit.

Moving on, Halo 2 was no longer an exclusive to the Xbox, and the PC version got a built-in level editor. (Bungie was kind enough to supply two new maps to the Xbox version, Derelict and Hang 'Em High. Yes, Halo 1 conversions. Sad, isn't it?) Halo 3 got a built-in item-placement engine called Forge, which everyone considers as a level editor. I can't help but wonder whether or not Halo 3 will be released for PC in the next couple years, and, if it is released for PC, I'm sure it will have a level editor, as well.

The moral of this drastically long story is: Don't trust Microsoft.
Oh and the only advice you should take from this post is that the Halo series isn't "Only on XBOX" and Halo is even the most likely Xbox game to be successfully played through an emulator.

Hope you enjoy all the goodies hidden in this post. See ya!

Broken Antenna

All this time, well, for the past week (or longer), I have been pulling hairs because of the constant disconnections from the home network. I thought it was a virus, even though I wiped my PC clean just weeks ago. My antenna is apparently cracked open on one side, which makes my connection less constant. I'm just getting a little jumpy sense my virus attack. It pushed me to install a secondary operating system, Ubuntu.

It's funny. In WinXP, I have constant errors and program crashes. In Ubuntu, almost everything works as I want it to. That includes my Windows drivers! Yep, my WinXP drivers work better in Ubuntu than their native habitat. As I type this, I wonder how (and when) my antenna broke and how long these Windows updates are going to take to download.

Just out of shear boredom (as I wait for downloads to complete), I guess I can add a new Video Game Bash. I'll start one now.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

MCR (MyCokeRewards) Codes

I'm giving away 15 MCR codes! You can simply comment on this blog, asking for the codes, or you could join Syboard and send me a private message there.

I'm accustomed to people asking why I'm giving these codes away (instead of using them myself), and I must explain: It's an advertising gimmick. It makes people visit my blog more than normal. Also, I already got a bottle opener from MCR last year. I would rather just give the codes to someone else than spend them on the crappy prizes. Hopefully, my codes will help someone get a good prize.

The video game bash will be back shortly.
(I got tired of bashing games for a while.)

Thursday, July 31, 2008

AMV and New Story

A few days ago, I mentioned I was making an anime music video for YouTube. I created the DBZ Megamix AMV, so check it out! CLICK HERE!

Also, today, I created a new blog for a story I've had stuck in my head for ages. Check it out as well! CLICK HERE!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Connecting to Xbox

Long story short, I had to reinstall drivers for all my devices and forgot to install the driver for my Ethernet port. I was so ashamed of myself when I finally realized the driver was missing, but here's the real kicker: My Ethernet cable is broken!

After digging through my box of wires, I found my backup cable, so I'm using that to retrieve my videos right now. I'm trying to collect my DBZ videos to make a kick-ass AMV or anime music video. It should be available on YouTube once I finish it. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* I'm only missing one episode (as far as I know), so I'm off to find a download. Cheers!

Monday, July 21, 2008

utorrentapp

The title of this blog post is not referencing utorrent or the bittorrent community, but there's a new virus going around, and the name it usually seems to go by is "utorrentapp.exe," but why am I announcing this?

Just a few days ago, I contracted the very same virus, and I'm honestly not sure what causes the infection, but there are many possible culprits, including a slight visit to porntube, even if it was involuntary.

Anyway, at first, I thought I could just clean the system with my anti-virus options. I eventually tried AVG8 again, and it found the virus but wouldn't do anything about it. I hate AVG. Moving on, though, I tried reinstalling Windows without repartitioning, just because WinXP was pretty screwed up thanks to the infection. As expected, the virus was still on there, so it was jumping around wildly. I didn't want to lose everything, because I didn't have much backed up at all, but everything had that nasty virus in it, so I just decided to start fresh.

I completely wiped my system, repartitioned the C drive for Windows XP Pro, and repartitioned the D drive for Ubuntu 8.04, and this is pretty much where I am now. WinXP is back to normal but has almost nothing on it, while Ubuntu has a lot of useful apps but no way of getting online (yet), so I'm salvaging what I can from the internet to rebuild my Windows collective, and, at the same time, I'm trying to figure out how to install my Windows drivers on Ubuntu.

The anti-virus app I'm currently relying on to keep me safe is Avast, and I strongly suggest you use it as well. I'm also looking for some nice games to play on Ubuntu, but I'll post my findings in my other blog, Search for Video Games.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Wireless blues? Router blues.

I finally determined a quick fix solution to my speed problem. Turning off my router and letting it sit for a bit before turning it back on actually makes it work better! I've gone up to 75kbps now! Wahoo!

If you have problems with your broadband internet speed being at a rate similar to dial-up, do what I did, unplug your router and wait a while. It works. In another day or so, I'll let it rest for maybe ten or twenty minutes and hopefully get my top speed again, which is about 500-700kbps.

In other news, I have a couple games I'm working on. One's an arcade game, the other is a role-playing game. I may update my list of commercials in just a moment, so check that out as well. It's right below this topic.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Hilarious Videos 2008 - Battle of the Batmans

I decided last year that I wanted to compile a list of the funniest and most addictive commercials I know of, but I haven't put forth the effort to make that list until now. Fortunitely, a new Batman spoof encouraged me to make a list on my blog, and I think it deserves the top spot on the "Top Ten Commercials of 2008."

Obviously, I'll have to update this list as the year continues, so keep checking this topic for updates.

Top Ten Most Addictive Commercials of 2008

1. Battle of the Batmans
This is a parody (or mockery) of the Batman franchise, and I love it. It is probably the funniest clip I've ever seen. Ever; not just out of all the Batman parodies. Just watch it.

2. Kamehame Haaa!
Dragonball Z: Burst Limit seems like a pretty crappy game to me, but the commercials are funny as hell.

3. *punch* Wake up! Bad guys!
I went to see Hancock, and it wasn't really what I expected, but the commercial was pretty awesome. I suggest you still watch the movie, but the good action is in the beginning of the movie. Want more? I found a site that sort of brings realism to the movie: http://www.hancockwashere.com

4. Hitler Got BANNED!
This is a joke that's been around the net for a while, but I only saw it this year, and I still found it hilarious, so I'm counting it. You should do a search for more "Hitler Got Banned From" videos. There are tons of them.

5. COMING SOON!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Reverting

The title of this post is for three reasons: I have to master Tony Hawk again, I'm going home, and I'm switching from GIMP back to Photoshop. I'm just sick of GIMP. Photoshop was simply easier to use.

Also, yesterday, I installed Perfect World, a free-to-play MMORPG. I'm getting my character set up as I type this. The biggest problem I've had so far is with the installation, but that's mostly because of how big the game is, two gigs. I'll play Perfect World casually for a few days and post what I think of it soon.

On a more personal note, I got into a kind of a fight with my cousin, Charlie a few days ago. He instigated the fight, but I don't think he was in a good mood. Seriously, I think he has PMS or something. One minute, he's all happy-go-lucky; next minute, he's
throwing television remotes and cursing. In all honesty, though, I didn't act very mature, either, because I got too angry with him to keep myself under control. Now, Charlie seems to be holding a small grudge but won't admit to it. I apologized for what I did (threw a pizza and knocked over some junk outside) and plan to go home in a few days to finally see my Dad and get some much needed sleep.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

MCR Winner

If you read my previous post, you may have wondered whether or not you won the codes, and the winner has finally been decided... the winner is DJ313. Not only has he received 25 MCR codes (all worth 3 points each); he will receive several more codes as I get them, because I'm just nice like that.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Modding Oblivion

When typing the title of this post, I kept wanting to type Morrowind, but really, Oblivion is what I play now, and I never want to go back to Morrowind. Well... I *am* adding old Morrowind lands to Oblivion as mods, but you can't blame me, modding Oblivion is more fun than actually playing it.

Don't misunderstand my statement. I love playing Oblivion, and I still do, with minor cheats and advantages (like my sword, seen in the screenshots). I'm trying to stay away from cheat mods, but there are some neat things to be done, including add Cloud's sword from Advent Children and even my own sword design from Blender.

My sword, again, shown in the screenshots, was my first textured model ever, outside of Poser. In the process of modding Oblivion, I'm learning a lot about Blender, so I'm actually gaining skills for use in the real world. In many ways, Oblivion is just a 3D canvas or playground for me, but, while praising Oblivion is a well deserved practice, I want to quickly say a few things about my sword. It was modeled in Blender v2.46 as a single object (to work properly in Oblivion), and I called it Suiseiseki, based off my talking sword in Syboard Adventures. It has a gray blade, much like Cloud's Buster Sword, and the hilt is a weird, black substance, but it resembles something made of wood. The reason it glows red is it has an enchantment. I honestly think it looks pretty neat for a first mod.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Two chairs broken in just two days!

Just a day or two ago, my beloved red folding lawn chair broke on one corner and nearly stabbed me in the arm. Just minutes ago, my replacement, a green folding lawn chair, which felt much sturdier, broke on the entire front half! Due to the sudden give-way, I wondered why I didn't fall to the ground, and I discovered it was breaking as soon as possible, so I must have got up just in time not to hurt myself.

Anyway, that's $20 down the drain. My Dad bought that chair thinking it would last longer than the red one, yet it ended up lasting only a few hours (opposed to a year), and it broke even more than my weak red chair. Now, I need to find something else to sit on, and I don't want any more lawn chairs.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Blogger screwed up.

I tried out the Blogroll feature a few days ago. I kept getting some weird error pages, sometimes, a 404 error, but I kept trying to use the feature, and I finally go to... for a day.

Now, on my other blog, Search for Video Games, when you look at the top of its menu, it only displays site titles; not their latest post. Also, it has a link to my old webcomic for some reason, even though I already went in and edited it off the list. I was going to try adding a blogroll to this blog, but I keep getting error pages, so I'm sick of messing with it.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Finally got to play TES4.

I thought I'd show some screenshots of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on its highest setting. The game looks gorgeous in my opinion. It looks like crap on the Xbox 360, and it loads very slowly as well, but the PC version, which I started playing yesterday, is always so pretty.

Yesterday, I installed a video card, and that allowed me to play all sorts of neat stuff, including TES4: Oblivion and the Orange Box Games. I started with Oblivion to test the card out, and it worked flawlessly, but I was really more interested in Portal, so I quickly moved on to that. Portal has some odd loading issues, and it actually likes to crash at random times (only done it once so far), but I love the game to death. It's just so addictive.

Before I got my card, I was already playing a very watered-down Half-Life 2: Episode 1, so I will probably get started on that game again in a few days, that's if I can put Portal down for a while. I may also try the Halo trial (again), but I don't think I care much for Halo any more. I played it too much in the Xbox glory days.

All these screenshots are of Oblivion... obviously.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

More Free MCR Codes!

I ran out of codes real quick the last time, and people kept asking for more, so here's a chance to win all the codes I have. For the record, that's, at least, 25 codes!

To win the codes, I'm asking you to join Syboard and send me a private message, asking to receive My Coke Rewards codes, and I'll pick one person out of everyone who sends me a private message to win all the codes I've collected. At the moment, I have 25 codes, but I may collect more before this contest is over, so join Syboard today!

Contest Ends: June 24, 2008 12:40PM EST. (That's 5:40PM GMT.)
All entries after that exact time will not be qualified to win. You must have a postcount of 2 (at least) by the time I choose a winner. The winner will be chosen at random by me, FJGamer, and will receive the codes in a private message on Syboard.


This contest is an effort to increase the level of activity at Syboard.net and will hopefully attract some fairly intelligent users. Syboard.net is a video gaming site. We hope you enjoy our message board.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Break until June

I won't be blogging again until June 1st. I just need a break from it. I don't get enough traffic to make my blogs worth maintaining, so I hope my vacation will scare some of you into commenting more often.

Also, click here and watch my new music video!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Weekly Game Bash #6: Lost Games

I'm on time this week! Anyway, I started adding subtitles this week. I just think it helps you to find what you're looking for, even if it's somewhat vague.

In my previous bash, I mentioned a new Zelda fan game, and, this week, I want to cover games lost to the void. To start us off, Nintendo created the Zelda series, which spawned many fan creations, but whenever something good came along, Nintendo bit us in the neck and sucked out all our ideas.

For example, Graal Online used to be a Zelda MMORPG, but Nintendo sued, and Zelda Online became the less popular Graal Online. Soon after that, Graal became a pay-to-play game, because the developers got depressed or something, but the biggest annoyance is the fact that Graal private servers don't last long and are never given much thought. Also, if you want to create an official playerworld, you have to pay Cyberjoueurs. You're essentially paying to work. Make sense?

Another example is how Four Swords came after this 2-player Zelda game. Unfortunately, the creator of the 2-player game vanished, and his site went kablooie.

Yes, it seems a majority of the lost games are Zelda tributes, but another game I miss is the old Runescape. Sure, we have a much more powerful engine now, but I can't find a working RSClassic server anywhere, and JaGeX no longer supports it. This means the game is lost and may never be found. However, if you know of a nice RSClassic server to play, send me the link, because I would love to play it again.

On an unrelated note, I may have more MCR codes soon. I save them up just to give them away. Am I nice or what?

Monday, May 12, 2008

Modeling a Runescape Character

I was looking for a good Blender tutorial on modeling game characters from start to finish, but I didn't find anything helpful, so I'm modelling a RuneScape character in Blender as a learning experience. I already figured out the mirror and subsurf modifiers, and I'm working on the textures now. After fixing the textures for hair and the clothing, I will add a long ponytail and finish the dragoon armor.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

AVG 8: Upgrade or Major Annoyance?

I installed AVG7.5 a while ago, always ignoring the advertisements for AVG8. Yesterday, I got curious and installed AVG8. I told it not to install the toolbars for IE and Firefox, however, the toolbar nuisance still came up. I tried to uninstall just the toolbar in Firefox, but I had no luck.

After a quick search for info, I found some discussion from March about how bad AVG has become. I just wish I found this before I upgraded. I searched for a few more minutes, and the only solution seems to be uninstalling AVG entirely and using some other anti-virus software. I'm not going back to AVG7.5, though.

Quick update on my projects: SyA is in stasis until I can spend a lot of time on it and truly concentrate on it, Fantasy Female 9 (Ultimate Character Generator) is also in stasis, and, while my website is vastly improved, I'm still busy working on it. I haven't had time to do much artwork, but I'm setting aside a few hours tomorrow to do some 3D model work in Blender.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Weekly Game Bash #5

This time around, I decided I would 'bash' something I love: Zelda! The "Legend of Zelda" games rather.

I love the third game, "Link to the Past," also known as Z3 or Zelda3. It was apparently favored by others, too, because it inspired Graal Online's creation, and I hear of the game constantly on review sites (Graal and Z3). Z3 had a very addictive musical score, and the graphics had their own style.

However, the game had its flaws, loads of flaws, and most of the flaws were fairly noticeable. The enemies, for example, were extremely dumb. They all either had fixed movement or simply ran after you. Another flaw was how easy it was to find rupees, the currency in the game. You simply had to chop bushes to shreds or blow them up. You could also run straight through the bushes if you had the special boots. The problem with this is that you have an endless supply of money but nothing to spend it on, nothing worth your time, anyway.

Moving on, let's look at "Ocarina of Time," also known as Zelda64. You guessed it, the game was for the console called Nintendo 64. I loved Zelda 64 as well, and the music got even more addictive, but the game had some very, very annoying flaws, and by 'annoying' I meant Navi, your faerie companion. Navi yelled at you throughout the game, even when you did things right. She constantly reminded you that she was tagging along by blurting out words like "Listen!" and "Hey!" Yes, I wish I could kill her, too.

Finally, I got to play "Twilight Princess," also called TP, which is an amazing coincidence, because it actually cleans up the filth that makes the Zelda series somewhat tiresome. It still has you go after a sword, then, a shield, and even a bomb bag, but that's what we've come to expect of Zelda games, and TP gives you that nostalgic feeling like you've been to all these places before, even though the world is completely different. I don't think that's a bad thing, but it could be.

Even in TP, you cut bushes for money. Well, you cut tall grass, anyway. Most people believe you cut bushes in all the games, but really, there are some exceptions, like the first two games. Still, the bush-whacking scene is pretty much owned by Nintendo.

It's pretty hard to find flaws in a game you love, but I can clearly see tons of flaws in the Zelda series, and I love the Zelda series, but the huge flaw is not necessarily a flaw in each game but a flaw in the games as a whole. If you've played more than one Zelda game, you know the stories are not linked to each other, and you know that every time you play a Zelda game, you will start fresh. At the beginning of TP, you were the boy, Link, without any weapons or tools or even a horse, even though you received a horse named Epona in "Ocarina of Time." Actually, they even recycle the names of characters, even the horse you get in TP is named Epona. Seriously, do we care to have the stories or do we want Zelda games to make sense?

For closure, you may want to check out the videos of this Zelda MMO. Graal was called Zelda Online until its makers got into trouble with Nintendo's lawyers. Let's see how long this project lasts... once it's playable.

Rats!

My mouse is wireless. I love it, however, it eats through batteries very quickly, and when the power gets low, it gets painful to use my computer. Suffice to say, I don't have spare batteries, so I'm forced to either use the dreaded ball mouse or rely on my keystrokes. Honestly, I need a mouse to do a lot of things.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Sorry, I'm Late, but I'm Still Alive.

Yes, I'm late with my weekly game bash again, but you guys hardly seem to care, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Today, though, I found another reason to want a powerful graphics card.

Portal TFV, or "The Flash Version," was a free (but not quite as awesome) version of Portal for us casual gamers with poor systems. It was a prime example of what could be done in Flash, and it still ranks high on my list of memorable Flash games, but I really want to play the real Portal.

Now, they're just teasing me, because I've grown addictive to the theme song, *This was a trial. I'm writing a note here, huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction,* and I've seen some awesome-looking screenshots of a complete conversion of TFV to the real Portal.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Weekly Game Bash #4

This week, since I'm very interested in programming games, I thought I would point out mistakes the professionals have made in their best and most popular games. This isn't as much a bash as it is a quick reference of common game design flaws, and you shouldn't think these games are bad just because I have pointed out their flaws. Try the games if you can.

Just because I'm obsessed with it, let's start with Sauerbraten. Its biggest flaw is the lack of control over what players do. Almost everything is done clientside. This means that you could use as many macros as you like online and get away with it. There is no security. Furthermore, not as much of a flaw as it is a missing feature is the ability to make intersections in the cubes. This feature isn't really needed, but it would make some small tasks a lot easier.

Moving on, I have been playing Sim City 3000 again recently, and I noticed that I couldn't find any way to use the onramp tile. It confused the heck out of me. This is a flaw in the design of the game's menu. There should have been some tooltips or something.

One of the most popular games today is Halo, well, the Halo series. One major flaw in the first game was the lack of online play, and you can fix that by either playing through XLink Kai or playing the PC version of the game, which brings me to the major flaw in the series: The PC version comes out later, but it always has more features. Halo 1 got a very nice level editor and a ton of features you could only find in Halo 2 for Xbox. Halo 2 recently got its PC counterpart, which also got a level editor, which was even better than the Halo 3 Forge. Halo 2 was also visually more appealing than anything before it in the series, and Halo 3 didn't look any better. When you make something exclusive to Xbox, don't port it to anything! And if you do port it, give the extra features to the console version as well.


Half-Life 2. Yep, that game everyone says is awesome but never even plays. I have two issues with this game. First, the system requirements are way too high. Second, why the heck do I need Steam!?

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, often referred to as just Oblivion, is off the charts when it comes to system resources. I can't even run the game unless I fully support DirectX9. There's a feature I could easily support software-side, but Oblivion requires it to be run hardware-side. I can't even turn the feature off. However, I think I may have found a hard-to-use workaround.

One more, Runescape, often referred to as RS, is one of the most accessible online games ever. It can be played through your web browser as long as you can run Java, but there's a major flaw in the accessibility of the free version of this game. If you pay to play, never stop paying, because any pay-to-play items you had will not work in the free version, and your bank will become stocked with tons of items you can't even hold onto until you pay again. The big flaw here is your bank will be overflowed with useless items you don't want to lose, and you'll be forced to stop playing that account until you can go to the pay-to-play servers again.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

MU Blue Screen of Death!

Heh, I spent about twenty minutes signing up for G1 to play MU Online. Then, I spent nearly two hours downloading the game and updating it. Then, I played two servers, leveling up a knight and a wizard. When I exited, I saw the blue screen of death again. Just like Forsaken. Only I was in windowed mode this time!

I strongly suggest you stay away from MU Online.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Forsaken Blue Screen of Death!

MU Online must be a great game, because this private server has plenty of players. Nevertheless, I'm the newcomer, and I'm, sometimes, treated unfairly.

I'm contemplating getting the real game, because Forsaken doesn't seem to have all the features worked out. Also, the updates take way too long, and after playing for a short time, I exited the game to have the dreaded "blue screen of death" appear. I restarted WinXP, no data was lost, but I uninstalled some iffy drivers, like the dual-core optimizer. (I really only have one.) I had to be sure WinXP wouldn't crash again.

I'll post screenshots of the real MU Online if I'm able to play it, but Forsaken is still a very nice alternative, and I suggest you try it (if you have broadband).

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Weekly Game Bash #3

I had some trouble deciding what to 'bash' this time, so I'll just mention a few random games (or so-called games) I've played and mention why I despise them. To start us off, I'm playing the Forsaken MU server. I don't know if the real thing is as bad, but updates take a while, and I get very impatient, waiting to play for just twenty minutes before the next game of my daily routine...

Live Search Club! That's right! I've been saving my points to get a Xbox 360, which is 25000 points, and I already have over 1100 points. The Live Search games have been pretty hard until yesterday, when I got to play a trivia game with Matt Lauer plastered on it. Matt is never going to be a model, ok!? Anyway, the trivia game is all guess work, but you can earn points real fast by tracking the right answers and redoing each trivia session to get as many points as possible. The reason I hate Live search Club is the insanely slow website. It can sometimes take several minutes to load the simplest of games, like the trivia, and the game itself isn't even very graphical. Also, sometimes, MSN loads instead of Live Search.

Worse than Live Search Club is the game that consumed a lot of my youth, Runescape. No, not Run Escape; Rune Scape. It was great in maybe year 2002, when it was still only a pseudo-3d game, when everything was pretty much free-to-play, however, in 2004, most of the game was pay-to-play, and they simply forced all the old players to either convert to their new game or resort to playing private servers, which were never a big deal, because they never acted like the real game. If you've ever played a private server for any MMORPG, you probably understand what I'm talking about, for example, faster movement, including easy teleportation to every important area of the world, and easily leveled-up characters. In, I think, late 2006, I began to, casually, invest time into the 'members' (pay-to-play) version of RS, because I started getting money from my cousin to play it with him, which proves how lonely you can get playing a massively multiplayer game. I recently converted back to the free version, but all my members items are still on me, so I'm forced to either lose all my hard-earned equipment or start paying that monthly fee again. I rather just not play.

Next week, I will delve into game programming and the faults in many popular games, including Halo, Half-Life 2, and Fable. Please, comment on my bashes, because I thrive on feedback.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Free MyCokeRewards Codes

If you 'play' MCR (or My Coke Rewards), you must know how hard it is to gain points without buying tons of Coke products. Some (if not all) of the promo codes have expired, and most old members have already used them. Most free code sites are flooded and become races to see who can use a single code first for a mere 3-10 points.

I plan to help you guys out. You see, I had several hundred points saved up on my account, but my points actually expired due to my inactivity or my time away from the internet, so I gave up entering codes. However, I have tons of 3-point codes left, anyway, so if anyone wants a set of ten (10) codes, I'll send you them by email. Each person who comments on this blog topic will receive ten 3-point codes via email. Just post your email or have it available to me via your user profile.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Weekly Game Bash #2

In the past few years, I've started to consider Halo my favorite first-person shooter or FPS. It was the first FPS I played on Xbox, and few games in its genre ever topped it, on consoles or PC. It was presented as an exclusive Xbox game, which made it very alluring for most Xbox owners. Seeing the "Only for XBOX" stamp on the case made me think, "Oh, a game the PC gamers will finally miss out on!" Obviously, that theory didn't hold true, because a version for PC was developed, and it was much better. I regretted buying the Xbox version of the game.

Then, Halo 2 was released for Xbox owners. Wow, did it suck major balls compared to Halo PC... but I still enjoyed playing the campaign stages, even if the story was complete crap, and I still play Halo 2 online today, well, sometimes... when I'm not playing Sauerbraten.

I know, I know I've mentioned Sauerbraten constantly. That's just further proof of how awesome it is. It even beats Halo 3's Forge, which was hyped to be a marvelous level editor. Forge was, instead, a spawn point modifier. Granted, it has better gameplay backing it, being Halo 3 and all, but Sauerbraten can be played constantly, day and night, never running out of challenges for you.

A quick note: I know I was a few days late with the second video game bash. I'll post another bash topic in about three days to make up lost time.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

VB.CSK (or OMG! Virus!)

I was offline most of last night and today fixing and cleaning my computer. While I was in class, I let my D drive defragment. Yesterday, I updated my virus definitions and boom, a virus appeared. The infected files were some dodgy items, like keygens and software cracks, but wow, I've had those files for over a year without any anti-virus utility finding them. They were definitely viruses, though; not falsely identified infections.

The free version of AVG anti-virus is what caught the viruses, so you may want to get the program for yourself if you're putting a lot of software on your computer from untrustworthy sources. Still, I don't try the commercial products. They may work more efficiently.

GED stands for Getting Everyone Disappointed

In the past, I've used quite a few name meaning generators, but they were all basically bad versions of an acronym generator. What's funny is I had to think up my own acronym meaning for GED, even after trying many acronym generators, because nothing they generate sounds appropriate.

Moving on, my life is full of disappointments. I was forced out of school (too much violence), had to be home-schooled (or risk failing the same grade for a few years), and when I was 16 years old, I wasn't considered a student at all, so I was dropped from the education system against my will. Later, I joined a GED program in Kentucky, but it was shut down for some reason, possibly budget restraints, so I didn't get that done.

Now, I have a chance to get my life turned around. I enrolled at Project Learn in Tennessee. I was amazed at how stupid some of the other students were, and the teachers were all amazed that I didn't graduate high school, so once I've worked out when (and where) I can take the test, I will, most likely, get my GED diploma/certificate thing. However, I'm still wondering what's left between now and the test. There are a lot of hoops I have to jump through before I complete the stage of my life I call the "Evil Education Environment" or EEE.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

SauerPortal

I finally got a computer desk yesterday, and I built it today, so I'll be working more on my computer now. Xbox? No, I didn't resolve my XLink Kai problem entirely, because I started having too much fun in Sauerbraten. I can't play The Orange Box until I get a new video card, but I have Portal-esque stuff going on in Sauerbraten. You can build a massive slope for a slide, have it go into the ground, put lava in various places, have the slope change directions randomly and put a teleporter at the end, which should send you to the teledest at the beginning of your slide to start over.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Bad Day Thursday

I was planning to play Halo 2 over XLink Kai today. However, it's not working. I posted my problem at the help forum.

I started playing the Live Search games, though, and I have the option to play Sauerbraten, so I'm fine for now.

Site of the Moment: Live Search

Looking for a rewards site you could actually get something from? Look no further, my friend(s). Live Search is a Microsoft charity program. It allows you to earn points playing puzzle games and either spend your points or donate them to a charitable cause of your own specification.

Click here: http://club.live.com

The prizes range from music downloads to magazines to Xbox and PC games to PC accessories to an actual Xbox 360. Of course, it'll take you a very long time to collect enough points to get anything decent, but you'll get there as long as you keep playing the games over and over again.

If you get anything from this service, tell me.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Weekly Game Bash #1

Every week, I will post about games I don't like and what I hate about a good game...

I was searching around for a good Tifa Lockheart wallpaper, and Google presented me with this Soul Calibur III custom character. That could be any black-haired lady with great breasts! I never actually got to try out the SC3 character options, but I did see quite a few vidocs about it. As far as I can tell, it's like WWF Smackdown 2 from the late PSX generation. Sure, you have a lot of options, but the characters are always so generic. At least, I can make characters in these games, though. Look at Super Smash Bros. Melee or even Brawl. Okay, Brawl has a level editor, but it sucks more than a cheap whore.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Great game. But short. I don't know if it's just my skills or if the game is designed for retards, but I found the story mode to be insanely easy to get through. The final boss was a bit difficult, though. The levels are great, and there are unlockable stages, but the level editor is worse than the Halo 3 Forge. Yes, I hate the Forge, but I'll save that for next week. I absolutely despise the Brawl level editor. It is like a RPG Maker 1995 tile system slapped on a Fighter Maker game engine with almost no opportunity for originality.

Brawl doesn't even make use of the Wiimote! Argh! There's a stage in Brawl based on the most Wiimote-friendly game ever, Warioware: Smooth Moves, yet even that stage has absolutely no opportunity to use the Wiimote sensors. The minigames, nope, no Wiimote usage. The Masterpieces are game demos of real old Nintendo classics, which is pretty kewl, but why play through Brawl to play Zelda for only five minutes when you could just emulate the games on your PC?

Brawl is just a fighting game. All the extra features are crap. Want classic games? Emulate them or buy the real thing. Want to edit levels? You're out of luck unless you want to get into game modding, and I highly doubt Brawl will ever become a mod-friendly game, like Half-Life.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Internets!

I have my wireless connection set up again, so I'll be online more often. I'll continue blogging, but I also want to play some MMOs a bit. Any suggestions?

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

I'm back.


Hey. Blogger was off limits to me for a few days, because they claimed I was a spammer, but they realized I'm not spamming at all, so I'm back.

Anyway, I have a lot to mention: The pet-raising game I started working on a long time ago, Mythical Creature, is back in production, but it will be worth playing this time around, and Syboard Adventures is alive! Yes! I have a screenshot on the left.


Yep, SyA the Game. I've been messing with it for a while, and I must say the game engine is near flawless in terms of design, but in terms of it actually working, well, I don't really want to start ranting, so I'll just say ActionScript is frustrating. I wish Flash would do the hitTest work for me, but the built-in function doesn't like to work, so I started checking the ex-and-why of everything. Expect a new game demo this summer.

Aside from pet-raising and adventuring, I have a game about working, aptly titled "Work," and a game about not doing the work you should be doing if you're an artist, "Ultimate Character Generator" or UCG. I like how UCG is coming, but I don't invest much time into that project, because it's just not as fun for me as my other projects. Work is in the concept stage, but I just started working on a menu system for it, and the ideas for this game just keep rolling in.

Work's a game about working your butt off and getting very little accomplished. That may sound like a terrible game idea, but I like it for how terrible it sounds. Your folks have decided to make you move out into the real world. You have a small amount of start-out money, which won't last long, but you have found an abandoned city to live in. You can colonize a town of your own in this city and build onto it with money you earn by, you guessed it, working your butt off!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Internet Blues

I lost my USB device and I can't really get anything new onto Syboard until I get a new one. I can't even download the stuff my cousins and I need. I also have to change my passwords before someone steals my identity. I'm doing that now.

I'm working on a new project, a Flash-powered media center. It's going well for the most part. I just need to work out where everything will appear on each skin. I'm also trying to fix up Syboard Adventures before I show it to anyone. I have a lot to show, but really, I'm not satisfied with the game yet.

I'm only using Blogger until Syboard has a blogging system again. I like Blogger, but Syboard's my home. :)