shades stuff

Yes it is an update!!

2005-09-18T16:40:00.000+01:00

Well I have not updated for a while reason is I now have a girlfriend so there ya go a miracle has happend lol!
First off I would like to congratulate my education establishment for gaining full University status. It is the start of something special for them. I also recently purchased an SD Card MP3 player with 128MB internal memory, FM Radio and voice recorder, I can also use it as USB flash stick and SD Card Reader. Its very nice I got it from ebay.

Next up is the recently unveiled Revoltion Controller

The remote control looking device on the left is the main unit using sensors put beside the TV, the Revolution will be able to pin point your movement and how fast you move the device, on the left is the numchuck expansion and is the first of many expansions for the revolution, it adds an anolugue stick and two triggers. Now I know what you are thinking? and that is why? Well it can open up now oppertunities for creativity in games take a look at this video to get some ideas. It could also give current genres a new feel to it like First Person Shooters. So what about traditional games and the wealth of downloadable games that will be availiable, well Nintendo are going to create a shell where you insert the remote like device in and it will play like a normal controller with motion sensor.
So what about the reaction? Well the press and some hardcore gamers love it but the rest are laughing because it does look like a remote control and at first glance people will not see whats it's about, this will be a problem for Nintendo, perhaps if Nintendo revealed the shell then it looked a bit better. Nintendo should advertise it a kinda detachable controller with motion sensor. Its not the final design so lets see what happens.

The DS has now got its most technical challenge to date with a port of Burnout Legends from PSP.

Monkey ball on DS, Its looks better in action then the screenshots.

Speaking of portables the PSP sold an impressive 185,000 units at launch betaing the DS by nearly 100K. Nintendo have a real challenge in europe as they have never had such big copmpetition since Sega's Game Gear. Perhaps Nintendogs will spike sales for DS like it has in the states.

M3 is being sold by Divineo China, they are shipping the CF version with the SD version coming by the end of the month. The SD version is pictured below, its only 1cm smaller then the CF version which is a dissapointment but I'll still get it.

I'll be selling loads of stuff on Ebay later tonight to raise money to buy M3, take a look.
Finally GBAX are selling the GP2X for a stunning £125 with Special UK Delivery for £129. It has also been unveiled that you'll be able to connect the GP2X to the TV which means that you'll be able to play emulators and movies using the GP2X. Sounds great :D

game news, Hombrew and stuff!

2005-08-24T20:14:00.000+01:00

Well I'm now back on Broadband at 2MB, I've had download rates of 150KB on torrent and 250KB on direct downloads, it's very sweet indeed.
In some news Nintendo have delayed two major games, the first being Zelda Twilight Princess, it has been delayed to make the game better but that is a huge blow to Nintendo this christmas but the cube still has Fire emblem and Pokemon XD as well as a wealth of third party games. The second is Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS it is looking likley that it has been delayed so that NST could add online play to it as fans have been demanding it since it was announced without online play at E3.
Nintendo announced the price of the Game Boy Micro at the rather high £69 which is the same price as the GBA:SP, now it came with Play Yan I could understand the price but cough up another £30 and you could get a DS and by the time christmas comes around the DS could come with a game for £100. I will have to admit that the Famicom face plate looks great

Microsoft have announced the price for the X-Box 360 at £209 and £299. The £209 version you a wired controller, faceplate and standard AV cable but no hard drive but with the £299 you get 20GB detachable hard drive, Wireless controller, Removable faceplate, Headset, HD-AV cable, XBL silver membership as well as a media remote. It'll be interresting to see the sales of each package but the £209 package could attract some gamers this christmas.

The M3 apdator team are claiming that there GBA support in there upcoming product is nearly perfect, much better then supercards, this piece of kit will be the ultimate in GBA multimedia and ROM playing and it also has support for DS which they have now unveiled their Pass Me device, this looks better then the current pass mes as the DS card does not stick out the top but goes down the bottom of the console, the pic is off the CF Card version I myself am waiting for the SD Card version. more info.

Recently I have been playing on smsadvance which is a new Game Gear and Master System emulater for GBA and it is at PERFECT SPEED! Compatibility is not brilliant nor has it got save state support yet but it is still very early. I can not belive what is being achieved on the GBA in regards to emulation as it has the power of a SNES with 32-bit RISC, first perfect NES, then Game Boy and now Master System, if you own a Flash Cart or Supercard then check it out.
Next up is a new app for Nintendo DS called Moonshell this program allows you to file browse and play MP3 files of any size, various picture formats and text files, still in early stages with updates happening very often but hopefully more support will be added. I have not tryed it yet but according to this post it is very good. Take a look.

Take a look at this topic. That is the GPX2, the sequa to the GP32 made by Gamer Park Holdings. It will host a 250Mhz CPU with 64MB of DDR Ram and uses SD cards. It will be powered by Linux. It will be the ultimate homebrew handheld as that is what it is created for. It also supports various Media types and ROm support, it is going to be good. Take a good look

ISP's suck!!

2005-08-05T19:47:00.000+01:00

Looks like I'm off broadband for about a month now and stuck on pay as you go.

First I wanted to migrate from Wanadoo to AOL because Wanadoo was sending me letters andout my usage, that was nearly 3 months ago, nothing was happening, I phoned them, told them about it, still nothing until they told me to wait until my wanadoo account has closed, well it closed yesterday so I phoned up AOL and they said that it would take upto 10 working days for BT to disonnect my BB line unless Wanadoo give me a MAC code. Phoned up wanadoo and they said they don't give MAC codes to closed accounts. So basically I will have to wait for 10 working days for the line to be disconnected, then order a new ISP which will then take at least 10 working days to be reconnected.

A word of advice for those who don't have BB yet, make sure you get yourself a good ISP because changing ISP is complete and utter bitch and migration does not work.

I looked at this site http://www.freedomlist.com/ and got me self a decent dial up for 1p a minute on evenings and week ends at local rates.
The one I got is this http://www.1-2-free.co.uk/ which has connected me at 48KBS which is a better rate then I had on 56K wanadoo and BT.

Anyway I'm on holiday next week :D

METEOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-07-28T18:48:00.000+01:00

Well I've just been working loads and stuff, holidays are boring at the moment, not to much going on really but Meteos has kept me entertained for many hours. Been watching Drawn Together it's a reality TV cartoon show and it's brilliant, you should check it out, it airs on MTV and Paramount.

What did he have for lunch?

Leaving experimental code in games is dangerous as Rockstar makers of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas have found out.

Meteos- Nintendo DS
Q Entertainment, a development studio founded last year by Tetsuya Mizuguchi who used to run UGA, a development team of Sega, he made famous games such as Sega Rally, Space channel 5 and Rez. His first game in his new studio was Lumines on the PSP, a game which has met great reviews with it's addictive gameplay and great sound. Now his first Nintendo DS game Metoes has hit and boy is it something special.
The concept is simple,lots of different coloured bloks named Meteos will drop into the bottom screen, using the stylus you can move any meteos vertically, when you get three of the same colour together either vertically or horizontal they will turn to grey blocks and take off taking with them the meteos which are above them, but blocks that are dropping will weigh the metoes that just took off down, so getting another three of the same colour in line after some meteos have taken off will help the meteos get off the screen. There are number of planets each with there own meteos and each planet has different gravity which deters how fast the meteos will take off, in some they will take off fast and some it they will take off slow, in one they just dissapear. Off course the longer you last the faster the meteos will drop, there are items that will drop like drills, different kinds of bombs and an item that will take off your meteos.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi is famous for music in his games an Meteos is no different, each planet has its own track, when metoes are taking off, leaving the screen and doing what ever different sound effects play which goes with the music, the quality of the sound is superb, I suggest playing it using headphones.
Modes? well we got simple which is you set the rules choose the planet, difficulty and if you want a CPU opponent in. Starship which is a course of levels ending with Meteo the game boss. Time war where you can do 2 & 5 minutes challengs as well as a 100 & 500 meteos challenge. Finally is Deluge where you choose a planet and get rid of as many meteos as you can .
There is unlockables as well, depending on how many meteoes of different types you have taken off you can unlock more planets, items, sounds and Rare Materials. Single card multiplayer is here as well as the ability to download a demo to another DS.
Obviously this a puzzle game and has no story as such and it will take you some time to get the hang of this game.
This game is addictive, and fast, you will not see this on any other games console other then DS and it would be impossible to recreate on any existing console due to the speed of the game. If you can only buy one Ds game then make it this one.
Rating- 9 out of 10.

Kirby, Supercard & more

2005-07-12T20:48:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to alton towers, best ride was Rita Queen of Speed, it was incredible, the fastest ride I have ever been on. First year Uni results, 4 passes, 2 merits and 2 distinctions, to be honest I wanted at least 2 more merits but I passed so thats the important thing.

One day after we get the olympics, terrorists attack London, a tradegy.
Lumines and minesweeper clone for your GBA, don't forget to rename the extension to .gba.

Double review today first up is a hardware review.

Super Card Compact Flash Version- Game Boy Advance
Links
Official Site
Ebay seller
Fan Site

One thing you have to remember about cartridges is that there capacity is measured in Mega bits, not mega bytes, 1 mega byte equals 8 mega bits so a a 1G flash cartridge is actually about 128MB that fits about 4 big sized GBA games. What if you could use a flash card, say a 1GB flash card that would be about 8 Giga bits that would fit 31 full sized GBA games, now you can with supercard.
It comes in two versions, compact flash and SD card. I have the Compact Flash version. The cartridge is the same size of a normal GBA cart and the CF card sticks out of the top, the cart feels weak, its feels like it could fall apart but it has not so far, the CF card does not have any protection by sticking out of the top but so far nothing has happend. The cart supports file browsing and folders. It has a 32MB RAM chip in it which is used to store the ROM being that is being played.
It supports a number of file formats the most populer being GBA roms. The cart comes with software, using the software you choose your GBA ROM and it will out put the ROM along with two save files. First is your normal save file which will save all saved data from the game, but to write this to the CF card you have to press L+R+Select+A, The second is a Real time save, this is just like a save state on an emulater, it will save your exact position to do this you have to press L+R+Select+A. Playing GBA ROMs is pretty good, it plays commercial and public domain ROMs, it does not seem to like ROMs with the hackers splash when the ROM is loaded up, I tryed other versions of those ROMs without the splash and they worked fine, with some ROMs it can slow down at points, Mario Kart is a good example of this but still not everything works, Supermonkey ball did not work at all. Playing GBA ROMs is not much of a problem and feels like your are playing it on the actual cart.
As well as GBA it has a number of emulaters built in which means you just put the ROMs on the CF card and run it. There is Pocket NES which is a perfect speed NES EMU, GoomBA is a perfect speed GB mono emulater. Dr SMS is a game gear and master system emulater, this is not full speed, speed is around about 80% to 90% depending on the ROM. PCE Advance is a PC engine emulater which is not full speed but is just about playable but it does not seem to like US ROMs that much. The ROM conversion software does not support these ROMs, it only supports .gba, this menas you have to take a .sav file and renanme it to the same name of the ROM, then use the emulater to do a save state then use the normal save function to save a game, annoying? yes it is. So for Pocket NES and GoomBA I used the emu file and the ROM compiler to compile the emulater and ROMs to .GBA form then it will support Real Time save and all save states you save will then only need one .sav file, I can't do this with Dr SMS and PCE Advance as it does not work.
The CD provided has a .GBA ROM of the software used in the First version of the advance movie player, this version does not support the crystal engine and can not be upgraded so the movies I had already encoded did not work but the music did and was about the same quality as on the Advance Movie Player. Unlike other Flash Carts this does not work with a PassMe to support DS homebrew but as this product is firmware upgradable you never know what the future holds. One more point is that due to accessing a CF card and rwriting to a RAM chip supercard does suck alot of power so your GBA will last about 6 to 8 hours using supercard.
This product is not perfect but I'm going to give it the benifit of the doubt as I use it loads and love it much, hence the high score.
Rating- 8 out of 10

The Advance Movie player team have made a rival for Supercard named M3, it claims better compatibility, no need to save to the flash card manually, better battery life and DS support with a DS specific version coming take a look.

Kirby Canvas Curse- Nintendo DS
Nintendos pink cloud has made his debut on DS in a innotive and very fun game, a witch has put a spell on Kirby and he/she probably she has been turned into a ball. Using the stylus only you must guide Kirby through the levels dispossing of the enemies whilst collecting stars and coins.
With the stylus you can draw a line and kiby will ride it or you can use the line to direct Kirby in a different direction or to protect kriby from projectile items, Kirby will only ever go the way you draw the line but remember you only have a certain amout of ink which in time will refill its self so don't use it all at once, also by using the stylus you can tap on star boxes which will break them and bombs which will clear surrounding blocks. By tapping Kirby he will shoot forward, you use this to kill enemies or get to somewhere faster. By tapping and enemy it will become stunned which means kirby will just have to roll into the enemy to dispose of it. Some enemies have special abilities so in typical kirby fashion you can copy them by disposing of them, these abilities will replace the dash until you get hit or you click a button to drop it, some power ups include fire which puts out a line of fire thats spins around kirby killing enemies in its path, wheel which will turn kirby into a wheel and will speed and kill enmeies in its path untill stopped by a cannon or a wall, stone which turns Kiby into a stone which is usefull in water. The top screen acts as map so you can see the layout of the level.
The game has 8 stages, each has 3 acts and a boss stage, at the end of each act you have a jump you must dash Kiby along and daw a line at the ledge and get Kirby as far off the edge as possible, I have managed about 800Meters. When you reach a boss stage you have three bosses to choose from, each have a different gameplay style. First you have Block Attack Draw paddles by touching the screen at one point and lifting off at another. These touch and lift points will be the start and end points of a paddle which Kirby will bounce off. You can also swing paddles into Kirby. Cart Run In this boss battle you are in a cart which constantly follows a line drawn by
the generator. You can move the generator by dragging it. The generator will
destroy things it comes into contact with except for food which, if you run
into, will give you a quick speed boost. Hitting two food boosts at the same
time will take you to max speed. Finally Paint Panic This boss battle is divided into two sections. Mimic drawing and paneltapping. For the drawing you connect the dots by dragging your stylus from point to point as instructed to by paint roller. In panel tapping you tap any panel with a star on it as soon as it appears. After you have done a boss next time you have the option to play the boss at a harder level.
The acts have stars, like a typical platformer get 100 stars get an extra life.
Each act has three medals, these are used to unlock stuff like music, different paint textures and even different charcaters, you have to complete the game with these new charcters to unlock some stuff so there is plenty to do, also you can not get to some medals straight away, you have to find a switch somewhere else in the game first.
After you complete a stage it will be unlocked in the Rainbow Run, this contains two modes where you can win 3 medals in each first is time trial. In Time trial you have to get to from the start of level to another part in a certain amount of time and don't worry it is not the entire level. Second is line trial where you have to complete part of the level with using as less ink as possible. This all adds to the length of the game which makes it bigger then all other innotive DS titles, graphics are nice and bright 2D visuals and the music is bright and cheerfull and goes well with the levels, but only 3 bosses? Damn close to perfection. This game is awsome.
Rating- 9 out of 10

TER? PSO:BB stuff perhaps.

2005-07-03T17:31:00.000+01:00

A few details on my upcoming PSU Clan. The host will be fragism, with them I get 25MB of space with ulimited bandwidth for free, I have had experience with them before and they are good but their free forum sucks so my forum host will be http://www.phpbb88.com/ which has quick reply mod as well as a shop and many more, again this is free and of course I will get a .tk address.

Name will be The Elite Revolution (TER) as I want us to be an elite bunch of players, clan won't that large but hopefully big enough where we can have a good community. Launch? might be at th end of the year, if it is then I'll do PSOBB support until PSU comes out.
I got and idea for a sub clan which I migjt do or not called Elite DS, this will cater for the Nintendo DS online.
The site it's self will just be for Clan info and news, no Reviews or stuff or that as I want to concentrate on being a clan, doing gaming news and reviews takes focus off the clan and it will all get to much.
So that's it for now.

More kitten goodness but this one has the Rambo approuch

If you imported a PSP, Sony does not want you to have it.
DS sells a Million in europe, nice and quick that was.

I made a new character on PSO:BB a cute little Force named Polo, click on the pic for a larger version.

Also they have put the first part of Episode 4 up today, click on the pic for a larger version again.

The host used for those pictures is Imageshack, you can upload a picture and it will give you code for a thumnail, works well.

I have Kirby: Canvas Curse but I want to play it more before I review it so maybe next time. I also have Another Code:Twin Memories and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory DS.

I'm back! Probably?

2005-06-22T21:12:00.000+01:00

Been working loads of shifts at work but it's about to all calm down so I should be able to post more now. I got a result for one of my modules at uni, Distinction for Introduction Internet Programming (VBScript), score was 19 which is the equivilent of an A+ so I'm happy, it was a great module taught by a great lecturer.

One Kat you don't wanna mess with

Random Violence where the hero does not win.
Best Metal Slug Flash game yet.

Next a review but in the next few weeks we will have many DS games as I have just received Kirby Canvas Curse, on friday I will have Another Code: Twin Memories, also in the next few weeks I will have Splinter Cell CT, Meteos and Bomberman DS, as well as the long awaited Killer 7 for Gamecube.

Donkey Konga 2- Gamecube
Last year Nintendo released Donkey Konga on the cube with Bongos for the price of a normal game, as it was good value for money I brought it and loved it as this music game does not feature those crappy home style dance mats. This turned out to a be popular game amoungt my friends and Donkey Kong Jungle beat was released and was brilliant, a DK platformer being controlled with the bongos, what a brilliant idea.
Now the second Konga game is here and there is not a lot to say, it has a few new modes and new tracks.
A big improvement is the fact that the game now stores the top three scores instead of just the first and when you have made it onto the top three you can select a badge which features characters from DK and the rest of the Nintendo universe.
One of the new modes is the freestyle zone, here you can select a background and a track and just play the bongo's how ever you like.
A new option is the music lab, here you need coins gained in the street performance to enter, you have two options. First is Barrel race where you have complete a certain number of notes before your oppenent can, when playing this in single player when you beat a CPU you get the chance to win an extra badge in a match the badge game. The second mode is Rhyhm Keeper, here you have memorise the notes given to you by your oppenent or your CPU, then you have to play them back in the rhyhm that thye did it in, very tough, again if you are playing this in single player then you get a chance to win a badge. All the modes from the first game like concert, Street performance, battle and challenge are all here. Just like the first you can use coins won in the street performance to unlock different bongo sounds and the tunes for expert mode but did not see any options for sub games like there was in the first.
There is a good variety of tracks in here like Breakfast at Tiffany's, All Star, Boombastic and many more, gaming tracks this time include F-Zero X's Mute City Track and the Super Mario Bros 3 tune but I think the track selection was much better in the first game.
Problem is there is not a lot changed in the gameplay which is a problem with the whole music game genre but if you enjoyed the first and played it with your mates then pick this bugger up, it is at a slightly budget price at an RRP of £29.99.
Rating- 7 out of 10

Updates to resume soon

2005-06-13T22:28:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of udates normal updates should resume soon with a review of Donkey Konga 2

Kirby Cursed Canvas has been relesed in the states and has been getting rave reviews, I can't wait to play it, review as soon as I get and played it.
I've been using free browser Mozilla Firefox, it's a great browser with some great fetures, check it out.

Bah!, Wario Ware

2005-06-03T17:14:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to a site not noticing that my protection was not active (was playing PSO, it has its own protection), I was hit hard, ad-ware, spy-ware, various software and even a couple of viruses. It took me all of last night and this morning (with sleep in between) to get it sorted, eventually I had to re-install Window but I did it over the existing partition which meant I lost none of my files.
You would have noticed that to the right of you there is a poll, go on, vote in it. I will change it every so often and yes I know the poll section colours do not match up to the rest of the right hand sections.

Live by saber, die by the saber

Yeah it's PSO:BB, one of the small new features is that you can now do all the posses in game and with your weapons, you can get some brilliant pictures.

MMORPGs to be banned in china? Because they are too addictive, Wario Ware is next then.
PSP owners in Japan can now watch Porn on their PSP. UMD porn movies to be released, dirty people.

Strange name for a town, perhaps it says something about the people

Wario Ware Twisted- Game Boy Advance
Nintendo are truly the masters of innotive control, almost every control feature you see in todays Joypad were created by Nintendo and Nintendo have not stopped, recently we have seen the DS with a touch screen and now a motion sensor built into a GBA cart? Wario Ware Twisted is the first of two games to use this.
The usual Wario Ware Stuff is here, you complete various Micro games to advance to complete the course, get the presents and to beat your own high score.
This is addictive just like the previous two Wario Ware games. You have games that just use the sensor like catch a butterfly in a net, switch the day from morning to night, move a kids hands to deflect incoming objects. You also have games that use the sensor and the A button like move the bow and shoot the fruit, move the hammer and pound the nail, get the puzzle piece the right way round and press A to place. There is also normal games like the original Wario Ware.
Using the Sensor is what makes this game brilliant, I just love the whole innotive control concept as it makes games feel different. The presents that I have unlocked so far are good, there is a sheep jumping game, there is a wind up music box and record of jimmys song, but judging by the question marks there are loads more to be unlocked. A big difference in this Wario Ware game is if you fail a micro game the counter will not go up.
As an added bus to people who own Touched on the DS having twisted in the cart slot at the same time as Touched will unlock you a Mona's Pizza Music Video.
I tend to use my SP instead of my DS to play this game as it is smaller and sometimes your console will be upside down but after a while the sensor will go wrong and start going right when you are not moving it, when this happens load up the game again, this problem does not seem to happen when using the DS?
Just like the other Wario Ware games, its pure fun and addictive gameplay make it an absolute must, rmember folks we play games to have fun and this gane is FUN! It's also very different from the other versions which is a huge plus.
Rating- 9 out of 10

Advance Movie Player

2005-06-01T13:17:00.000+01:00

Big Brother started last friday and I could not care less, fed up with all this reality TV crap. Desperate Housewives finishes tonight and I like that for some very strange odd reason. E4 came to freeview on friday which menas I can watch more Scrubs and Smallvilem, me is happy.
Been playin loads of PSO:BB recently, last thursday me and some guys were remembering the good ole days from dreamcast PSO here are some recent PSO:BB pics.

I wanna ride next!

Advance Movie Player- GBA
I got a 1GB Compact flash card for a good price so I thought to myself I might as well get this as it would be good to have something that plays music and theres no way I'm spending money on an I-Pod or those crappy cheap MP3 players.
This advance movie player is independantly made player that supports compact flash, their site is here. It can be brought from Lik Sang for around about £14 which is great value for money.
The review is based on this running on Nintendo DS, if you are expecting high quality movie playback from this thing then you would be a moron, remember the power of the GBA is similer to a SNES with a 32bit RISC, also remeber that this player is not made using a Nintendo development kit but regardless of all that the product is pretty darn good for what it's running on. Before you start using this thing pop to the official site and get the latest firmware upgrade and encoding software.
First off is music, music need to first be converted and cannot be played straight from MP3 form which is annoying at first but the encoding software is very fast. The software will encode to a .gbs file. There are many file conversion modes, the best is 8-1 stereo, this will get the quality and size of your file to that of the MP3 original. The other conversion modes are mono and sound is very disstorted so there is no point in using them. If a file is low in volume then the music converter has an option where you can boost the volume, I used this with a couple of low volume files and it worked really well. When I tested these converted files the quality was great, I plugged in my headphones and could feel the stereo sound, the quality sounded as good as the MP3 but if the source file is poor quality then the the converted file will be poor quality, the software will not enhance the quality of the track. One problem with the software is if you encode too many files at once, after a while it will only encode the first minute of the track. When playing the music on the hardware, up will switch to next track, down to the previous track, right will fast forward 10 seconds and left will rewind 10 seconds, R will pause and L will also skip to next track. There is no playlist support here but with this being firmware upgradable you never know what could come next but it does support file browsing so numbering the files and putting them in specific folder is a cheeky replacement for play lists.
Next up is movie playback, like the music the files these need to be converted, the software has three modes, you might as well use the High Quality mode only, the software supports AVI, qucktime, Real and windows media formats. The software outputs two files a .gbm and like the music a .gbs file. Movie quality is hit and miss, I encoded a episode of Sentai Dekaranger with subs, I could read the subs, sound was great, video kept a decent frame rate although was a bit blocky, it was perfectly watchable. I tested an episode of Family Guy, source file was high quality but the framerate was not good which menat the sound lagged behind, I also did a Futurama, source file was high quality but the framerate dipped a bit in places but was perfectly watchable, last test was South Park, source file was low quality but was perfect! Controls when watching a movie are the same as the music but the fast forward and rewind is a minute this time.
Next up is NES rom support, first off you have to put the Pocket NES emu into the source of your Compact Flash Card, this is a nice feature but is limited, NES games play fine but the ROM size is limited to 256kb which is annoying as many roms are just 1k more lol, also there is no saving and you have to literally turn off the console and reboot if you want to play another ROM as the Exit option does not work properly, hopefully this can be improved in future updates but its still a nice feature.
There is also support for pictures but just like music and movies this has to be converted which makes this feature rather pointless. Last feature is E-book support or actually not E-Book support as it says on the hardware much rather txt file support, this has its uses as you can store game guides on the card for when you go on holiday but this has no find option.
The cart its self is the same size as a GB mono cart, it's big due to the size of compact flash cards, if they went with SD cards the cart could have been much smaller and then Nintendo fans would be able to use those cards for future Nintendo products.
The developers are planning a big update which will use the abilities of DS, hopefully touch screen and better hardware, looking at what they achieved with the GBA hardware the DS upadte could be pretty stunning.
Overall this is a stunning product but it has many flaws. If you want a music player and movie player for your DS or GBA then get this.
Rating- 7 out of 10

NFSU 2 DS and Stuff!

2005-05-27T17:28:00.000+01:00

Been really busy the last few weeks which is the reson for the lack of updates, this week me and a friend have decorated my flat then I helped him move in to his new house. This week I got the GBA media player and have been giving it a good testing, more of that in the next update.

Do your Boobs Hang Low? A cassic flash.
Barb Wire Skipping Game A lot of Fun.

Need For Speed Underground 2- Nintendo DS
A few weeks back I looked at my handheld collection and noticed that I was missing a car racing game, racing games are not my favourite types of games but Sometimes I do feel like playing one. As I have a DS, I choose DS as the format, I purchased Ridge Racer DS, it was fun for a while but the bugs in this conversion from the N64 showed in the collision detection and in the handling as DS uses a D-pad, so next on the my list to try was NFSU 2 on DS.
The developers are Pocketeers who are famous for making many impressive GBA graphic engines and they made NFSU 2 on GBA which I have played and it is pretty darn good.
I've had the game for over a week now and its pretty impressive, graphics are decent cars look good, scenery looks good and it's moving at 60 fps! Not even Rivals on the PSP ran at that frame rate, the only let down graphics wise is that the road textures are low res.
Handling has been fine tuned for the DS D-Pad and responsive enough.
Gameplay consits of a Quick Race mode and Go Underground Mode. In the go underground mode you have four options. First is circuit which has three levels of difficulty, circuit has three race types Time Trial where you have to complete the track before the timer runs out, Lap KO where you race against three other players and the last place will get knocked out in the end of each lap and Finally normal race where you race against three other players. Second Underground option is Drag race which is like dray in the other NFSU games. Third is Own the Zone where the course is split up into four parts and you have to get the best time in three off the zones to win. Fourth underground mode is Bonus Event which are sub games. The game is good length, there are 12 Circuits and 16 drag courses, the game is very rewarding and in most races you will get a new engine part of decoration for your car. The touch screen is used as a map, in own the zone it shows who own which zone and what time to beat.
The music is decent and quality is good but the soundtrack in the console versions is not here, in fact they are remixed better quality tunes that were in the GBA version, this is a shame considering Star Wars Ep III had the full on Star Wars soundtrack, they could have at least put a few tracks in. The free roaming city is not here which I suppose is a bit too much to ask as it’s a first gen game for the DS but the game has the same structure as the GBA version. Pocketeers did not even attempt to change the structure, they could have had the map on the touch screen and you could select where you wanted to go, in fact the rather enjoyable Drift mode from the GBA version is left out, this all does let the game down a bit.
If you want a decent car racing game for your DS then get this, it’ll do you good until something else comes out. Its fun, challenging and fast.
Rating- 7 out of 10

Star Wars Episode III

2005-05-22T20:32:00.000+01:00

A Special Star Wars themed post today as I went to see it on friday. This is the first time I have ever reviewed a movie so it might not be to good but I'll give it a try. There are a few small spoilers in the review :D.

Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith- Movie
Finally the one we have all been waiting for is here and it does not dissapoint like Episode I did.
The Movie starts with Anakin and Obi Won on a mission to save the kidnapped Chanceller Papaltine from Count Doku, this scene shows how good friends Anakin and Obi Wan has become, this first sequence has some funny moments in it as well. The movie starts off well and fast and it maintains quality throughout the entire movie. Action is constant and fights include Anakin and Obi Won Vs Count Doku, Mace Windo Vs Palpatine, Obi Won Vs General Devious who is the droid General and wields FOUR! lightsabers, Yoda Vs Palpatine and inevieatable Obi Won Vs Anakin. Anakins journey to the dark side is very well done and the movie gets very emotional at times, sound track is awsome as usual. Most of the loose end have been tied up but some have not and Star Wars fans will notice a few things do not make sense like for example Lea says she remember here mother but she dies during child birth.
All in all a fantastic movie. Go see it now!
Rating 9 out of 10

Star Wars TV? and of course the classic Star Wars Gangsta Rap .
What about Sonic in a Star Wars Setting in another classic flash animation.

Darth Maul Advertising milk.

Yes after reading a few reviews and seeing it got much better ratings then the XBox and PS2 versions I decided to buy the game for DS.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith- Nintendo DS
*Gasp* A decent Star Wars handheld game? What next? Fifa being a good game? Na thats just stupid. The game has two gameplay types on foot and ship fighting.
The on-foot style takes the style of Streets of Rage where you can move your character up and down the screen and fight the on-coming enemies, you can either choose Anakins path or Obi Wons path, each path has 13 missions, the action on foot is pretty good and lots of fun as well as providing a decent challenge, you have different light saber combos depending on what charater you have and which direction you are pressing when you are slashing, you can also block either high or low, time it right and you can reflect any laser blasts right back at the enemy. You have the force which has a gauge, you can either push the enmies back, lift them up for a short second or throw a fallen part of a droid at enmeies. Finally you have special moves which you can use by doing a simple combo or touching the touch screen, at the end of each level you can power up your character. The downside is that this bit is a port of the GBA game and there has been no graphical improvement or addition to gameplay what so ever, this fact lets the game down as the DS is obviously a superior system in power.
The second bit is ship fighting which is exclusive to the DS version, the developers Ubi Soft Montreal have managed to get a very smooth running 3D battle engine going here which might be improved and used in future Star Wars game, these section are thrown into certain parts of the game, controls are easy but the missions are very basic and involve you to destroy a few ships and thats it! A few missions like destroy a building would have been great.
In the multiplayer menu there is a Skirmish option where you can play CPU controlled oppenents in dog fights, you have a great selection of ships like Darth Vader Tie Fighter, X-Wing, Millenium Falcon, Jedi Starfighter I & II and so on. You can also select a pilot which are of course charcters from Star Wars, each pilot have their own level of difficulty. Skirmish is a great time waster.
Their is a Special Mission option which I haven't unlocked yet, that will add to the length as well as the two diffulty settings. The Star Wars style of music is present in this game at brilliant quality, in fact I believe that this game has the highest quality of music seen in a DS game so far, it really is that good and sets a good atmosphere to the game.
This is a fun game which Star Wars fans should buy if they want a decent Star Wars game but I can't forgive the on-foot section being a direct GBA port with nothing improved.
Rating- 7 out of 10.

Nintendo @ E3

2005-05-17T20:29:00.000+01:00

Two updates in a day, your guys are lucky.
Oh boy do Nintendo like to keep people waiting. Revolution was kept low profile during Nintendo's E3 press conference, Reason? with all the hype surrounding the other two consoles the revolution might have been forgotten. Revolution will be fully unveiled soon though, perhaps Nintendo will hold Spaceworld this year. Details of the revolution were present as well as a screen shot of the unit.

Yep no controller which is supposed to be the revolutionary part, the only thing certain about the controller is that it will be wireless. Apart from the known info that the Revolution will play DVD's and Gamecube games, the revolution will have online games from the go with Smash Brothers a possible launch game, speaking of online the DS will have 25 online ready games before the year is out including Mario Kart. Nintendo Online is a very pleasing thought. The Revolution will have 512 megabytes of on-board flash memory. A bay for an SD memory card will let players expand the internal flash memory. Now the next bit is exciting, the console also will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo® 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System® (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System® (NES). WOW! lets hope there is a way to be able to play some of these games online like current PC emulaters do. Just like XBox did the Revolution will be able to download new content for games.
Also on the press release, one other thing caught my attention and got me thinking "Nintendo's rich stable of star franchises. A new development architecture will accommodate both big-budget games as well as artistic, indie offerings designed to make sure that everyone from video game experts to newcomers find ways to share and enjoy the gaming experience"
The bit in bold sounds interresting. Does this mean that Nintendo will provide development tools with the system so the revolution can have a homebrew scene just like Dreamcast and GP32? I certainly hope so!.

Also unveiled was a new version of the GBA.

The GBA Micro will boast the finest color screen Nintendo has yet put in a portable, will play all GBA games and it will be backlit. Look at the size of that thing! However it does not look liley that it will support MP3 or MPEG 4 as previously rumoured.

More about E3 soonish.

PS3 @ E3

2005-05-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

It was unveiled yesterday at Sony's Press Conferrence. It comes with a PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz, 256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz and lot more technical guff which means it is very powerful. It is also compatible with PS1 and PS2 games as well as the various DVD and CD-Rom Formats. Its prime format for PS3 games will be Blu Ray Disc which is capable of 25GB per a disc, it will also talk to PSP and go online via a Wi-Fi. At this point there seems to be no hard drive or memory card Slots?
All you need to know about games and stuff is here

The console its self is very slick and smart, not ugly like the first PS2 model. The controller has the same amount of buttons and layout like the previous Dual Shock controllers, its just a different shape and completly wireless. So the change in the controller is small, I want differences in these new consoles that will eventually lead to Innotive gameplay experiences all this will have over the previus consoles is better graphics and sound, the games unveiled for PS3 are mostly sequals at the moment. I must say I'm a bit more impressed with XBox 360 at the moment as at least it has some new game franchises coming to it. PS3 will sell on brand name alone, people will buy it because its called "Playstation". Below are some links to some movies.
Devil May Cry 4
Killzone 2
Tekken
FF7 Tech Demo
Nintendo are set to unveil their Revolution console later today, lets hope they can give me the difference I'm after, they did it with DS (I'm still playing Pac Pix) so I'm confident Nintendo will not dissapoint.

So True.

Star Wars Ep 3 is out in cinemas on Thursday, I'm gonna see it on friday as well as pick up the DS game as it has been getting good reviews and looks like it could be have some decent retro style action. I also get 2MB broadband on Thursday :D.

X-Box 360. PSO Stuff

2005-05-14T07:18:00.000+01:00

On Thursday M$ unveiled the X-box 360 on MTV. It has Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each, 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM, Removable 20GB Harddrive, Wireless controllers. All the information can be found here. There was also a lot of games unveiled, I haven't looked at them all yet so I'll pick out a few in the next update they can be found here.
Picture below is the final Design, it looks a lot better then the original X-box and the front can be flipped off so make way for custom designs. Lots of design pics here

The Design of the controller is similer to that of the controller S, the controller is completly wireless and can be charged using a docking station and you can charge whilst playing, hats off to M$ for that great idea.
The medium for this is not HD-DVD as rumours suggested but its a normal DVD-Drive, the drive will be compatible with Dual Layer DVDs meaning over 9GB of data on a single disc, HD- DVD was not used due to the expense of the technology which is a wise move but it could come back to haunt if Nintendo use a much bigger medium and of course Sony is using the much larger Blu Ray, using a smaller disc size then the competition really effected Nintendo with the Gamecube. The removable hard drive is in meaning that you can all your data to your friends off, a good feature to have. Again the prime focus of X-Box 360 is to create a large community via X-Box live this can be seen in this video.
XBox 360 has a few nice features, many decent looking games coming to it but when you get over the graphics and sound you could just end playing games that are very similer to ones we play now, there is nothing in this console that will inovate gameplay at the moment but you never know I could be proved wrong by the time the console launches.

Don't Slip

PSO:BB has gone into Beta, it can be downloaded from File Planet and is free for six weeks, a few thing have changed as well. Pic of me is below

IGN have also got a new trailer of PSU take a look. there are also two gameplay movies floating around the net Number 1 & Number 2. This game is looking awesome and is the true sequal to PSO. I can't wait.

Gunstar Heroes, Pac Pix, Sonic, Mario, dogs, Kittens and Spam

2005-05-09T16:03:00.000+01:00

One of the best games ever created is getting a sequal, yes finally Gunstar Heroes is getting its long awaited sequal called Gunstar Super Heroes. It is coming to GBA which is the correct console so it can keep its 100% 2D gameplay as a PSP version would have to use 3D backgrounds which could affect the gameplay just like Contra on the PS2 and the abilities of the DS would go unused.

Check out this flash game called Kitten Cannon. I managed to get 671 feet.
A classic Flash Game, a flash based on Sonic Advance 2, Take a look.
This guy really does not like Spam and Can Mario get his Cake?
An interesting arcticle below.

Pac Pix- Nintendo DS
This is the first of two Pac Man games that has given the yellow dot munching circle a new lease of life on the DS due to its innotive abilities.
Pac Pix Started life as a tech demo at last years E3, concept is simple you draw Pac Man then he comes to life, you draw lines and then he will munch off in the direction you draw the line. The aim is to gobble all the ghosts up before the time runs out, if you draw a big pac Man, he will cover a bigger area but draw a smaller Pac Man and he will munch faster and you can also draw more then one Pac Man at a time. But you can only draw Pac Man a certain number oftimes so don't keep on letting Pac Man go off the screen.
One of my fears about this game was that it would get boring REAL quick but to my surprise it does NOT. There are different types of ghost, one ghost will suddenly move to the other side of the screen, one has a sheild covering his face and sides so you have to get him from the rear. Some ghosts are on the top screen which means that sometimes Pac Man has to go over a key Pannel and then you must direct him to the top screen, fruit and extra lives are held there as well. On some levels there are pannels on the floor that if pac man hits he will bounce off in the opposite direction so this menas that you must draw a smaller Pac Man, also there are ghosts that you gotto much in a certain order (1 to 3). There are also boss fights, in one boss fight I had to draw Pac Man bigger then the Boss. To keep the game fresh as you progress through the game you will learn two gestures Arrow and Bomb. the Arrow is used to get ghosts stuck in a bubble on the top screen. I'm not sure what the bomb is for as I have not got that far yet.
The game has Tutorials on how to draw Pack Man and the Gestures, this will take you a while to get the hang off, there is also a blank canvas where you practice drawing.
However just like Feel the Magic, Wario Ware Touched and Yoshi Touch and Go the game is not a big game, There are 12 chapters each has five levels with every other chapter having a boss stage, you get a rank for every chapter and depending on the rank you unlock a card which are pretty useless but puts a little more depth into the game, the main game is the only play mode you got, a few more modes would have been nice but this game is a hell of lot longer then Yoshi Touch and go.
There is one bug which can be annoying, sometimes when you draw Pac Man he will not mucnch the way you have drawn him, say you draw him to munch right, sometimes he'll munch down? however this is not a killer bug as you get used to it after a while.
You will only see this game on Nintendo DS, not PSP or GBA. It is an Innotive, awsome and a very enjoyable concept but is little short in length but you will play this for ages as it is just so much fun.
Rating- 8 out of 10

Phantoms Stuff, Review and the usual

2005-05-05T20:29:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, bee rather busy with assignments.
Phantom has yet again copied me again, first it was the similer name and now he has moved his blog to blogger.com but it ain't got no stuff but take a look at Phantms Stuff.
Selling a load of stuff on ebay check it out. It All ends on sunday

Will someone please think of the cockroaches!

At last! a Legend of Zelda Music Video, it's a classic

and now its mini review time. Hopefully I should have Pac Pix in the next week.

Super Mario 64 DS- Nintendo DS
One of the all time classics can now be played on the go. Its one hell of an update. You can play as Yshi, Luigi and Wario as well as Mario, the game has been changed so certain characters do certain stars. You start off as Yoshi and must get 8 stars before you can save Mario, there are several new levels as well as 30 new stars. During the game yoy are required to catch rabbits, these will unlock mini games which all use the sylus and are great fun, games such as finding a chracter in wheres waldo style, during lines to match a head to the right body, catipulting bombs and many more things.
When this was released there was a big stir about the lack of anolgue stick on DS, some people find it hard to control but I find it easy and got used to it no problem, you've all been spoilt with anlogue controlers :D. Using the thumb strap on the touch screen works well but I prefer the D-Pad.
Graphics are literaly a perfect port from the N64 but due to the smaller screen the graphics actually look better on DS, its a cheap trick but it works. All the sound is there as well.
Game can get frustrating at times but you'll come back for more.
This game makes a perfect handheld game and is an absolute must for DS if you owned the original or not
Rating- 9 out of 10

You know you want more stuff!

2005-04-28T19:58:00.000+01:00

I found out the over day that if I do a third year of the course I'm doing at the moment, one the modules availiable is Computer Game Developement, so I asked my tutor about it and he says it will be making games coding in java, well thats a start.
I watched TNA Lock down yesterday and it was awsome. It got off to a slow start but it still was good, best matches were Hardy Vs Raven, A J Styles Vs Abyss and the six man X-division match. I give it a rating of 8 out of 10. If only all WWE PPV's were that good. Speaking of which, WWE Backlash is this sunday.

XBox 360 is almost confirmed to be the name of Microsofts next console, below is a picture of the XBox 360 controller, it looks a lot like the Controller S and confirms my worries about lack of innovation in the console. The picture has not been confirmed as real or fake.

Here is trailer of Another code for DS which explains a bit about the story, quality of the movie isn't that good though.
Congratulation are in order as Nintendogs scored only the fifth 40/40 rating from the famous japaneese gaming mag Famitsu, also over 180,000 copies of Nintendogs have been sold within its first week, this in turn has boosted the weekly sales of Nintendo DS to a massive 97,000 units. Well done Nintendo.

New ways to tackal Speeding in the states have been introduced.

Thats your lot, I might write a review for my next update.

PSP Euro Launch and more STUFF!

2005-04-26T13:04:00.000+01:00

Sony have announced the first details of the european launch of the PSP. It will launch on September 1st for £179. It will be the value pack that comes with the Console and its battery, 32 MB Memory Stick Duo, remote control headphones, an AC Adaptor, a wrist strap, a cleaning cloth, a pouch and a UMD containing several non-playable demos.
If you want the console just for gaming or media then £179 is a bit steep but if you want it for gaming and media then its a good price, it will sell well as the the brand name "Playstation"is a very powerfull name in europe like it is across the globe. Howeveer I won't be getting untill the price is £100 or below as I don't pay more then £100 for a handheld no matter what ever it can do and beisdes from September onwards there are loads of games to buy for DS, GC and PS2.

A bit of DS Stuff now Nintendo have announced euro release dates dates for Pac Pix due out 20th May and the awsome looking Another code due out on June 24th.
A few weeks back I made a topic at Intrinity about upcoming DS games take a look.

And now for something completly random.
And more randon stuff.

XBox 2 Pics.

2005-04-25T15:13:00.000+01:00

Take a look at these pics of XBox 2, these have not been confirmed as real or fake.
They look alot better then the XBox 1 but the size of the console still looks pretty big.

For bigger pics click here and here

Also the console is meant to 64MB memory cards and a removable hard drive, why have both? The removable hard drive is a good idea though.

More mini Reviews, Goeman DS.

2005-04-24T22:21:00.000+01:00

Hey peeps, went to work on saturday, it was crap

Here is a very annoying song but its very catchy.

Check out the trailer to Mystical Ninja Goeman. Its looks like its got a lot of touch screen action in the main game.

Also TNA present Lockdown tonight, all eight matches are in the six sides of steel, if these matches are half as good as Trple X Vs America's Most wanted back at Turning Point then this should be a decent PPV.

If your kids are annoying you during a long journey, the picture below is a good solution to your problem.

Also two reviews that I wrote for the intrinity forums.

Timsplitters Future Perfect- Gamecube
TS2 was an absolute classic, it had lots of modes, decent multiplyer and each satge of the single player had a different style to it. TSFP is much of the same, in the single player it is much more story orientated as you chase someone through time and the levels are huge, so huge infact that most span through two missions, thats good but it does mean that there are not as many styles as in TS2. I belive TS2 is better then this but this is still a very worthy purchase.
Rating 7 out of 10

Wario Ware Touched- Nintendo DS
As nintendo rushed the DS out to compete with the PSP Nintendo needed a game that wpuld show the innotive features of the DS and needed something that was already popular, Wario Ware on GBA and cube had already been a smash hit in japan with its fast fun addictive gameplay so nintendo choose Wario Ware. In Wario Ware touch you have to use the stylus or the mic to complete the micro games, these games have time limits so you either have to do it before the time runs out or survive. The main game consists of themed courses or megamix couses and games include things such as Poping ballons, drawing a path so a stickman can get home, unroll toilet paper, use a bow to hit the target, trap animals and all sorts each course also has boss stages, your aim is to complete as many games as you can and you can only fail four times. YOU MUST PLAY THIS GAME before making an opinion of on it as looking at screens and reading about does not do the game any justice. This game is addictive and fun. It truly deserves this score.
Rating 9 out of 10

Reviews and stuff

2005-04-22T19:41:00.000+01:00

I think I'm getting the hang of this, its not to bad. So what have I got for ya.
I got a TK adress at time of writing it wasn't working but it should be soon http://www.shades-stuff.tk

Microsoft have announced that they will be unveiling XBox 2 on MTV on May 12th before E3, tbh I'm not expecting anything much, just a high powered console with wireless controllers, this will lack innovation and once you get over the pretty graphics you'll find that the gameplay of the games are the same as on its prequal.

Star Wars Ep III on DS actually looks like it could be fun look at the Trailer but then again most Star Wars games tend to suck.

Here are a couple of short reviews for ya of recent stuff I've been playing on the good ole Dreamcast

Trizeal- Dreamcast
The latest Dreamcast release from Japan is yet again a 2D Traditional Shooter conversion from the Naomi Arcade board. Developed by Troubled developer Triangle Service and published by Sega. The action is fast and furious as well as challenging. The ship can fire laser, multiple bullets, Rockets and has a bomb that'll destroy everything on the screen. You can get power ups which will add bullets to the missle mode. The game is hard but easy to start, the speed of the game is awsome and is so much fun to play and the music is pretty good as well. Unlike the last few DC shooters this has a two player mode and actually has some extas like a bonus stage, lifting sub game and you can unlock the ship XIISTAG. My version of the game came with a free bandana and a Bonus Track music CD. Heres the downside, this game is doesn't really further the genre and is not really different to other shooters.
This is well worth the purchase.
Rating 8 out of 10

Rage of the Streets- Dreamcast(Homebrew)
This is the lastest mod using the game engine Beats of Rage. Beats of Rage is game engine where games like Streets of Rage can be created.
Rage of the Streets is based on Streets of Rage, it contains Axal, Max, Blaze, Skates and Zan. Your mission is to rescu adam, all the special moves are here, the backgrounds are based on Streets of rage but are not directly from Streets of Rage, the music is remixes from the streets of rage games. But the action feels slow and only the "Y" is easy to do, the controller has trouble reconisng the forward, forward, X move which is a shame. But I will still say that this is the best BOR mod to date with Hatchet Ninjas being the second. Download it here
Rating 8 out of 10

shades stuff now @ Blog Sites

2005-04-22T18:33:00.000+01:00

Yep I moved it here and started again. Reason? Its just easier to update. I'll be posting some stuff soon.