Health and stuff (the_debaser)

After a particularly heavy session this weekend, I felt like complete shit on Sunday. And Monday. Chest pains. Sick stomach. That sort of thing. I'm OK today though.

2 of my uncles have died with heart problems before reaching retirement age, so its probably something which runs in the family. Luckily I'm not a smoker, nor do I just sit on my arse every day. However, I do eat an awful lot of crap. And I do drink to excess.

So, I'm giving up the beer for a bit. No doubt I'll miss it. But it'll help me save money. It'll stop me from forgetting what I did the previous night. It'll stop me staying in the house on Saturday afternoons nursing a hangover. And it'll also make me appreciate beer more as more than just a crutch which gets me through another relentless week of 'work-eat-sleep'.

To paraphrase the great Homer J, 'Lemonade will be my beer and feeling good will be my hangover'.

Paper Game Boy Micro (Wickedkitten)

Paper Game Boy Micro:

We’re never ever gonna get tired of paper

models of gadgets—especially unreleased gadgets. Apparently the same goes for the Japanese, who’ve been all up in

that scene since day one. Their latest target: the Game Boy Micro. Get your (fake) game on before any of the other kids

on the block, and in whichever colors and designs you bother digitally appliqueing to the thing.

[Download PDF]


[Thanks, SoDesu]

Attract Mode: Critical Failure (k3nshi) (k3nshi)

Earlier today me and a friend were in the arcade at London's Trocadero tourist and school kid ghetto. If it is a fair representation of arcades today, then the scene is in a truly dismal state. So many old, or old looking games: Daytona is still there and going strong. Daytona 2 was not being played at all. Spazmania and their ilk were going strong. Everything just seemed uninspired and lacking any appeal.

We spotted a Star Wars Pod Racing arcade game. Two people were playing it, and my friend thought it looked pretty cool. I thought it was a perfect example of where arcades have gone wrong. In an arcade I expect to see games that I would not imagine to be able to play on home hardware. A Star Wars Pod Racing game should have graphics comparable to the films, not to other 3D racing games which can be reasonably reproduced on home consoles. Remember the days you walked into an arcade and could only DREAM of playing those games at home? Thats what is missing - at the Trocadero at least.

Ok the costs... THINK OF THE COSTS of all that mega-hardware and software. I understand. But why not produce arcade hardware around high end PCs and mega gfx cards? This would be a lot better than filling the arcades with aging Model 2 and Model 3 arcade hardware. You could also cut software costs by building on top of APIs like OpenGL and DirectX. Surely this is the only way forward for the arcade industry?

Mistakes (Wickedkitten)

As we all know, a certain forumite has had their porn past exposed on the forum at the moment, and regardless of whether it was right or wrong to make what was public knowledge by virtue of being on the internet, public knowledge by posting it on the forum, what mistakes have you made?


Personally for myself, the biggest one has been getting married at the age of 21, it was so horrid it's put me off the idea for life. What about you?

Yahoo acquires Konfabulator (Wickedkitten)

Konfabulator Now Free:
Plus: An illustrated history of how that came to be. (via Daring Fireball)

Bonsai Tree (k3nshi)

The latest addition to Kenshi HQ.

Selling Out (k3nshi)

The profound realisation of the time/reward ratio of gaming, has made me decide its time to sell a load of games and stuff. Here is what I am considering pimping:

PS2

• PlayStation 2 (Big box version: original and the best innit), + 2 controllers (official), Scart lead
  
• Devil May Cry
  
• Maximo
  
• Disgaea
  
• Jax & Dexter 2
  
• Metal Gear Solid
  
• Silent Hill 2
  
• Pro Evo Soccer
  
• Timesplitters
  
• Prince of Persia (dont get upset now...)
  
• Viewtiful Joe
  
• Freak Out
  
• Kengo
  
• Fantavision
  
• SSX
  
• Gran Turismo 3 + Steering + pedals

Nintendo Gamecube

• Black Gamecube: Jap and US region (mod switch in the back) + RGB Scart cable +
  
• Resident Evil 4 (US)
  
• Metroid Prime (US)
  
• F-Zero (JPN)
  
• Super Monkey Ball (US)
  
• Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (JPN)
  
• Pikmin (UK - note: doesnt actually work properly on above cube)

Phew, thats a lot of stuff. In retrospect I shouldnt have bought half of it anyway. C'est la vie, I was bored and in a high paying job at the time.

Into the wonderful (k3nshi)

I just completed God of War. I bought it on a whim on Friday. Initial impressions were underwhelming - sure it looked great and very, very slick, but the combat just wasnt clicking for me. Fast forward five hours later. I'm still there playing. It fact this game has consumed my entire weekend, a near unprecedented achievement. Sure it mocked me by somewhere along the line downgrading the difficulty from Hero (normal) to Mortal (easy), but I just shrugged it off. It was just too damned compelling - CANT STOP PLAYING UNTIL I FINISH.

But is it utterly AMAZING? No. Its good, very good but not quite the Ultimate Arcade Adventure I was hoping for. I cant really pin down why it wasnt amazing, it has no discernable faults as it were, it just doesnt have anything that really raises it and the genre to exceptional levels. Its probably the best arcade adventure game of the generation, but not the Perfect Theatre Of Violence I was hoping for. But it is part of my formula for Arcade Adventure Perfection. Pay attention, games designers:

Ultimate Arcade Adventure = fuseAndEnhance(Halo, God of War, Devil May Cry, Ico) + SprinkleOfMagic

Oh and Greek Mythology as a game setting is such a no brainer - I'm surprised we dont see more of it. The Making Of features at the end drop some heavy hints about a sequel for "more powerful hardware". The potential for something awesome is certainly there. Hmm... my weekend appears to be over. Maybe its the perfect swan song for my gaming habit.

PS: Amongst the many, MANY things I should have done today but didnt because I was busy playing God of War, was going for a run. I feel like a complete LAMER now. Games are bad for you: QUIT THE HABIT.

Slowly joining the bunch (Anonymous)

Ahah so i've joined the hash edge band wagon after talking to Mr K3nshi this morning about things :)

I'f i can write longggg posts for my live journal i'm shure i can do something here

Sadly this will be very short as i haven't got *much* to talk about now as i've said alot on my lj and cause im also in work.. i thought i would be more tired though as i went to bed at about 4 ish, woke up at 7, been in the office since 8, so a maximum of 3hrs sleep, but it doubt it was...

Women eh :(

That is all

~ Kammy

"I'll punch as many mans as it takes to get the job done"

Woo-sa, Daniel-san! Woo-sa! (k3nshi)

After that pleasantness, I can reveal the newest addition to Kenshi HQ: a bonsai tree.

A pepper tree to be precise. I'll post images up on Flickr at some point - I'd do it now but its a bit dark.

Also you lamers, when did this become my personal blog? Blog!

It Just Works (k3nshi)

...or rather IT DOESNT.

Considering so much is made of the iPod's "Halo effect" for driving sales of Macs to PC users, you'd think it would be simple to just switch your iPod to your Mac. No such joy here, as I have wasted HOURS trying to get the bloody thing to work. I even got some classic error messages such as "The iPod Disk does not have the correct structure" (hold that comment your pedantic geekspastics - I was using the iPod Updater at the time, before you tell me "No n00b, you need to format the iPod in MAC format!!!!111oneoneonefuckingone") and... brace yourself:

"An unexpected error occurred."

Oh we just hit Windows territory, just when spanx was telling me "at least its not some fucking lame windows error message shit like 'unknown error'. Be thankful Our Glorious and Wise Leader Steve Jobs is too Compassionate for that kind of rubbish - he loves us. I intend to kill a random stranger to receive a phone call from him..." (actual quote).

So now I am going to have to return the iPox (fortunately its under warranty). Ah yes, the warranty service process. You have to fill in a DEFECT REPORT to get your warranty service. Nice. All in all a complete waste of time and another layer of gloss removed from the Apple image. I cant wait for Sony to get a clue and kick Apple's media giant pretentions ass all over the shop. Get to it Stringer.

Is this the card you chose? (k3nshi)

For the past week I have been trying to recall the name of a domain specific (ie specialized) programming language. Sure I tried smacking up my twin sniff bitches Google and Yahoo with related terms (ok, ok snoopist: "graphical programming language"). This yielded lots of irrelevant links. I tried checking out websites where I was sure I had first heard of said language. Nada.

Of course, I gave up at this point. It wasnt a super critical thing, just something I might have been able to use to knock up some fun designs. With that in mind, I just shrugged it off - walked away the Bigger Man.

This morning I received a number of books, some geeky, some (ok one) not geeky. 10 minutes ago I picked up the book "Best Software Writing 1: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky". Its a nice book, a collection of essays about software (no really, its fun). One of the best things about the book is that most of the essays are short; web article/blog post size because 99% of the content is available for free on the web, in exactly that form (the last 1% being Spolsky's intro to each essay). So I flipped open the book just now, and lo and behold, the essay I flipped to talks about the precisely the graphics language I was looking for and has the URL for it.

AMAZING.

(The card you picked was the Ace of Spades).

NiN (k3nshi)

lame Lame LAME.

I think I liked about two songs. As for the show, some ok lighting effects and hilarious wrecking the stage (or trying to) antics. Pathetic.

so bored I almost left early/10

Sun Hardware (k3nshi)

Apple computers? Toys.

Linux? Junk.

Real men use super expensive Sun Hardware. Kenshi HQ is fully loaded.

Reap the whirlwind...

Free nintendo bullshit (k3nshi)

I cant be bothered with Nintendo spastic points, but maybe you can. Enjoy:

13H4837RBBDFN

That was from the GBA WarioWare, in case you need to know that too. Talk about an overrated game.

Homeostasis (k3nshi)

"Homeostasis or homoeostasis is the property of an open system, especially living organisms, to regulate its internal environment so as to maintain a stable condition, by means of multiple dynamic equilibrium adjustments controlled by interrelated regulation mechanisms."

Science. Wcked innit.

Game Over 2? (Anonymous)

The Sequel!

Kenshi and I were chatting about this last night.

Gaming has lost its attraction. It now feels like a waste of time rather than a pastime. A habit rather than a hobby. There are other things now that I find more entertaining. Movies, reading, working, photography, playing. I'm just too *busy* for games.

I suppose it is a cyclical thing. Something in the next-gen will bring me back in to the fold. Amaze me again. But for now... naaaahh

Game over? (k3nshi)

Its been a month (at least) since I've played any game (the last being a brief go on Wipeout Pure on a tube journey). Any motivation to complete RE4 has now disappeared. I rarely pack my PSP in my bag these days. God of War, a game I had previously been desperate to play is out next week, and its no longer a definitie purchase. I might buy it. I might not.

What's led to this gaming malaise?

Perhaps its summer. Perhaps its because I am busy geeking out over my new Mac (Unix innit). Perhaps I'm just too damned busy doing stuff that has a tangible return on the investment of time. Who knows?

Come Friday we'll know if God of War is enough to bring me back to the gaming fold.

Rise of the Machines (k3nshi)

Time to get your geek on. Some cool and fun resources about AI in games. Check it:

• How they did Halo's AI - a great read
  
• OpenSteer - download the cool demo app (for Windows | OSX | Linux)
  
• Halo 2 AI and networking info
  

Barbie Fashion Show (Van123)

My friend sent me the link to this torrent, right. So I downloaded it. "Barbie.Fasion.Show.iso.torrent." Yeah, ok, why the Hell not? So I tell him I'll download it the next day. I thought it'd be funny material to watch while drunk or whatever.

It only took an hour to download; only 500MB. Rayn told me about Deamon Tools, so I downloaded that, and installed it. I had no idea why the movie wasn't playing. Did I install it wrong? Did I open it wrong? VLC wouldn't play it, WMP wouldn't play it. So I burnt it to a CD to see if that would make a difference. "No autoplay? What's going on here?"

Of course there's no bloody autoplay, I have autoplay for games turned off. What they Hell? It's a game, not a film. I have no use for a Barbie game! You'd think that'd be it, but nooo. I decide to install it, for shits and giggles. Spanish. The game's in Spanish. Not only do I have a game instead of a film, I have it in a language I can't understand.

All I wanted to do was watch a Barbie Fashion Show.

Experience: 1G