Howdy folks! It has indeed been a while since my last post. Not really been that much to talk about really. Not done any videos (apart from the one today showing a glitch in castle miner, but that was made more for the dev guy). Not gotten any new retro stuff lately; nothing has taken my fancy really. Just been playing on my Nintendo Wii quite a bit.... lets talk about that plus some other random things.
Wii Stuff:
Recently I softmodded my Nintendo Wii. Took me a while to do, some trial and error and lots of googling. I ended up using an exploit that loads up via your emails page (called letter bomb). In order of what took place: download exploit (you need to enter your Wii mac code and you hit download. mac code so the letter will show up). Put it on an SD card, load it up, install Boot Mii and the homebrew channel. You then use the homebrew channel to install custom files so you can then run various things. (I have perfected this now, I did this for a friend and had him up and running within the hour).
With the Wii hacked, I now have my USB games hard drive hooked up to my Wii and on it is a folder full of Wii games. The USB loader on the Wii reads NTFS formatted drives so I didn't have to buy a new hard drive just for Wii games. I now have over 100 games.... I'll talk about some of my faves some other day. You can also download and install stuff you would buy through the Wii shop channel like N64 games, WiiWare games etc.
Xbox 360 Stuff:
One of my favorite Sega Saturn games is now available to buy on Xbox live: Guardian Heroes. Made by Treasure, published by SEGA. This game is sort of like streets of rage/golden axe scrolling beat-em-up. Good fun! has a graphics filter too (optional!) that will make it look less blocky. Makes it look decent IMO.
Been playing on castle miner a bit, very similar to fortress craft. You build stuff from blocks in your own world etc. Both have their pros and cons, fortress craft has only one save but on castle miner you can have as many saves as you want so you can make more than one world. Castle miner also has a choice of different types of worlds to build on! has standard, coastal, desert, etc. Good stuff! also has more types of block design to choose from where as in comparison: fortress craft has very little. Although on fortress craft you can make your own block and whatnot sooo..... yes good points and bad points of both.
Some up and coming games for Xbox 360 that I am looking forward too, biggest being Sonic Generations! combines classic sonic game play from the megadrive days, with sonic colours type gameplay from... these days. Levels are re made ones from previous sonic games, from the meegadrive era, dreamcast era, and modern era. You can choose to play as classic sonic or modern sonic and you get two completely different game play styles! so each level really is doubled. Demo is out on XBL, both sonic play styles are damn smooth. With all the screw ups SEGA have made with sonic over the past 10 years, this game really is a nice surprise.
And yet more SEGA goodness this year with Daytona USA on the way! FINALLY this game gets the home port it deserves. The Saturn version was good, but graphically not anywhere near as good as the arcade version at the time. The dreamcast version was ok, controls seemed a bit iffy though. But now we get the original one in HD. Brill!
Movie stuffs:
Saw the animated movie adaptation of the CLASSIC Batman: year one graphic novel, today. The book really is a complete masterpiece. You see in the 1980s DC had to reboot allot of their comics as the storyline continuity was allover the place. This story is about Bruce Wayne becoming the Batman, as well as Jim Gorden (who later on becomes commissioner). Christopher Nolan also based Batman begins on this book.
Bruce Timm is of course behind the animated version, and it turned out decent. The animation style is sort of part CG with the drawing style used in the book. That came out rather well. The story seems to follow the book without making changes. I feel though that they missed something... it just seemed like they rushed over some of the details to keep the run time down (or to cut costs I dunno). The guy that voiced Batman was completely lifeless and sort of spoiled it a bit. I know Kevin Conroy is too old to voice a younger Bruce Wayne which is fair enough: but why get someone in that can't voice act? The rest of the cast where fine though. Over all it just lacks the substance that the book has.
With this in mind, I really hope they dont screw up any more classics like the long Halloween and the dark knight returns (which I hear is next on the list)
Other stuff:
I've been buying a few action figures here and there: mostly transformers stuff. I have finally completed my collection of the deluxe range of bumble bees (mold wise anyway) all accept nitro bee, which quite frankly: looks like shit.
I picked up a couple of transformers from the third movie: shockwave and megatron voyager size ones. Nice figs! I sware though with these figures getting smaller, they are taking the piss charging the same prices. Voyager range figures when you bought them at least you where pleased at the size of item you received for the money. But now? that megatron is fucking TINY.
Also keep collecting marvel universe figs, got a nice little collection going. A few include figures from the recent marvel movies. Picked up a Steve Rogers figure when hes not captain America but still doing missions for shield. (i think bucky is captain America at this point or something). Also got a DR Doom figure which is pretty cool.
Got a couple of megabloks mini marvel figs, same as the halo ones really... you can even part swop to make a custom figure. These come in blind packs so you dunno what you are getting. I ended up with a spare iron man, so I did some parts swopping and gave him a new armor while creating a trainee ironman! Yeah it passes the time doesn't it?
Been looking at hama beads on youtube. Interesting things these..... you make designs and iron on top to make em solid. Seen some cool retro pixel art beer coasters! I wanna make some too!
That is all for today, thanks for reading.
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Want to use your Nintendo Wii classic controller on your PC? here's how.
Hi guys, do you have a Nintendo Wii, and want to get more out of your controllers? well you can. If you want to use your Wiimote on your PC, it is doable via blue tooth BUT it's one hell of a pain in the arse. So let's forget that entirely and concentrate on the devices that connect to your Wiimote.
What we want here is simple; connect our Wii devices to a USB port on our computers. This is where this device comes in handy: Wii Classic Controller to PC USB Adapter
Want one? get yourself to ebay. Bargain at just over £10. Allows you to connect two devices.
Here is my video review:
What you can use: Wii classic controller (both versions) and anything based on it like the Madcatz arcade stick, the Hori arcade stick, or even the mayflash Wii arcade stick (I wouldn't recommend that stick though)
What you can't use: Wii nun-chuck (which is a shame!) and probably anything else that isn't a controller variant
(That video is a few months old now, it was going to be my debut on youtube, but I thought it a bit unrefined. But sod it, I put it up anyway).
What we want here is simple; connect our Wii devices to a USB port on our computers. This is where this device comes in handy: Wii Classic Controller to PC USB Adapter
Want one? get yourself to ebay. Bargain at just over £10. Allows you to connect two devices.
Here is my video review:
What you can use: Wii classic controller (both versions) and anything based on it like the Madcatz arcade stick, the Hori arcade stick, or even the mayflash Wii arcade stick (I wouldn't recommend that stick though)
What you can't use: Wii nun-chuck (which is a shame!) and probably anything else that isn't a controller variant
(That video is a few months old now, it was going to be my debut on youtube, but I thought it a bit unrefined. But sod it, I put it up anyway).
Saturday, 3 September 2011
More on the twin sticks
Hi guys, here is my promised review of the blaze 'twin sticks'.
Not too bad for £25, but it needs work. After playing on this game (still can't remember the name of it. The game is apart of a shooters pack for PS2).
After this video we continued playing using my more better quality arcade sticks. What? you want a video of them in action? Oh behave!
Thanks for reading... and watching.
Not too bad for £25, but it needs work. After playing on this game (still can't remember the name of it. The game is apart of a shooters pack for PS2).
After this video we continued playing using my more better quality arcade sticks. What? you want a video of them in action? Oh behave!
Thanks for reading... and watching.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Beat-em-ups!
Hi guys, some of the most fun games (at least they are for me) are scrolling beat-em-ups. In these sorts of games your character roams around fighting. This genre of game has been around for over 30 years, and my love of them began with my very first games console: the Sega Megadrive.
The second game I got for this (because I had played it a friend's house) was Streets of Rage 2. And to this day still remains one of the BEST in the genre of all time.
Thee games vary in story and setting (of course) so there is always a reason for your character to go around beating people up. These are usually bad guys of varying degrees, some stronger than others. You will go through a level, then at the end there is usually a boss fight. My faveourites in this genre are mostly 2D ones, from the megadrive days, and in the arcades (well on mame, emulating the arcades).
They do still make these sort of games these days, but they are not so arcade like any more. Most of them are single player, and are more like third person adventure games with beat-em-up elements. Some of these are good fun though, like Bayonetta, the devil may cry seriese and the god of war series. These are more like newer versions of Castlevania though, a platformer from the SNES days.
There are two major things that spoil these games though, and can be the make or break factor. The main thing is the combat system, along with the controls and the fluid movement of your character. The person you play as MUST come across like they can actually fight, because otherwise the game will suck.
The best example of a great combat system is in the god of war games. The movement is so smooth, the guy is FAST and is damn strong. This makes the games a whole lotta fun! the Devil may cry games and Bayonetta also have a similar combat system. The other thing that spoils games, are what they call 'Quick time events' (QTE). These usually crop up on boss fights as finishers. A seriese of buttons appear on screen and you must press them as soon as they appear for you to peform the finishing move. Miss one, and you have to start the move over again. Wait a sec, am I fighting here, or am I playing guitar hero?? Yea it is the most stupid concept to ever be dreamed up.
Combat systems wise, the way to do it wrong is to have your character stiff, slow and coming across like he can't fight worth a damn. An example of this is in the Dead Rising games (Xbox 360). The game as a concept seems fun with you being able to beat down zombies using almost anything you can get your hands on, and even combining those things to make some bad ass weapons. But unfortunately the combat is stuff, the guys is too slow and it is not fluid at all. It's more like a third person shooter/adventure game trying to pass itself off as a beat-em-up.
There are a few pure beat-em-ups though that are in the world of 3d games. There is a series of 'Teenage mutant ninja turtles' games for example on the gamecube, xbox and playstation 2. While the games are decent, they just don't have the same fun factor as the classic 2d ones.
Games comapnies are realising more, that the 2D format is far from dead and so they are releasing 2D games to this day. They have even remade some in HD! and they look great too. The old arcade 'Teenage mutant ninja turtles: turtles in time' was remade in HD with 3D looks, but with the same classic 2D style of play. The game is AWESOME. They should remake the sequal too 'The Hyperstone Heist'. Great games.
There are quite allot of indie games out there, unofficial sequels and remakes of old games. The very best of these is 'Streets of rage remake'. This takes all the best elements of all three streets of rage games and puts them all into one game. All levels are present from all three games, as well as a set of new original levels. There are multiple routes too, so the game can be different each time you play. Also all characters are available to play as, as well as hidden ones! some hidden extras too which you can 'buy' in the shop using points earned during game play. Shop is unlocked when you first complete a game.
This game took years to finish (the devs have lives and jobs too lol) and once it had been finished, the devs recieved a cease and desist order from Sega uncer copyright claims. Yes sega waited 5 years until they had finished the game, then decided to act like morons. Sega have done nothing with the Streets of Rage brand since the megadrive days, so they have no business sticking their noses in. This game can still be found online, so google it. Game is about 150megs.
If you don't own the older games consoles, or arcade machines (and not many folk own arcade machines!) then you can just download emulators and the game roms to play on them.
Well, until next time....
The second game I got for this (because I had played it a friend's house) was Streets of Rage 2. And to this day still remains one of the BEST in the genre of all time.
Thee games vary in story and setting (of course) so there is always a reason for your character to go around beating people up. These are usually bad guys of varying degrees, some stronger than others. You will go through a level, then at the end there is usually a boss fight. My faveourites in this genre are mostly 2D ones, from the megadrive days, and in the arcades (well on mame, emulating the arcades).
They do still make these sort of games these days, but they are not so arcade like any more. Most of them are single player, and are more like third person adventure games with beat-em-up elements. Some of these are good fun though, like Bayonetta, the devil may cry seriese and the god of war series. These are more like newer versions of Castlevania though, a platformer from the SNES days.
There are two major things that spoil these games though, and can be the make or break factor. The main thing is the combat system, along with the controls and the fluid movement of your character. The person you play as MUST come across like they can actually fight, because otherwise the game will suck.
The best example of a great combat system is in the god of war games. The movement is so smooth, the guy is FAST and is damn strong. This makes the games a whole lotta fun! the Devil may cry games and Bayonetta also have a similar combat system. The other thing that spoils games, are what they call 'Quick time events' (QTE). These usually crop up on boss fights as finishers. A seriese of buttons appear on screen and you must press them as soon as they appear for you to peform the finishing move. Miss one, and you have to start the move over again. Wait a sec, am I fighting here, or am I playing guitar hero?? Yea it is the most stupid concept to ever be dreamed up.
Combat systems wise, the way to do it wrong is to have your character stiff, slow and coming across like he can't fight worth a damn. An example of this is in the Dead Rising games (Xbox 360). The game as a concept seems fun with you being able to beat down zombies using almost anything you can get your hands on, and even combining those things to make some bad ass weapons. But unfortunately the combat is stuff, the guys is too slow and it is not fluid at all. It's more like a third person shooter/adventure game trying to pass itself off as a beat-em-up.
There are a few pure beat-em-ups though that are in the world of 3d games. There is a series of 'Teenage mutant ninja turtles' games for example on the gamecube, xbox and playstation 2. While the games are decent, they just don't have the same fun factor as the classic 2d ones.
Games comapnies are realising more, that the 2D format is far from dead and so they are releasing 2D games to this day. They have even remade some in HD! and they look great too. The old arcade 'Teenage mutant ninja turtles: turtles in time' was remade in HD with 3D looks, but with the same classic 2D style of play. The game is AWESOME. They should remake the sequal too 'The Hyperstone Heist'. Great games.
There are quite allot of indie games out there, unofficial sequels and remakes of old games. The very best of these is 'Streets of rage remake'. This takes all the best elements of all three streets of rage games and puts them all into one game. All levels are present from all three games, as well as a set of new original levels. There are multiple routes too, so the game can be different each time you play. Also all characters are available to play as, as well as hidden ones! some hidden extras too which you can 'buy' in the shop using points earned during game play. Shop is unlocked when you first complete a game.
This game took years to finish (the devs have lives and jobs too lol) and once it had been finished, the devs recieved a cease and desist order from Sega uncer copyright claims. Yes sega waited 5 years until they had finished the game, then decided to act like morons. Sega have done nothing with the Streets of Rage brand since the megadrive days, so they have no business sticking their noses in. This game can still be found online, so google it. Game is about 150megs.
If you don't own the older games consoles, or arcade machines (and not many folk own arcade machines!) then you can just download emulators and the game roms to play on them.
Well, until next time....
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
All Fast All Furious
Like that title? Its what I came up with for the 6th movie in the franchise. I finished waching all five of them now with a double bill today of 'Fast and Furious' and 'Fast Five'. Was a good idea too as 'Fast Five' directly follows on from the previous. (and by that, I mean the ending scene of F&F is pretty much the start scene of F5).
With this I am FINALLY clear of the movie timeline. It is as follows (well for now at least):
I have fully enjoyed all of the movies, yes including TD. You see when I first saw TD I wasn't that pleased with it. Same with 2F2F for that matter, as they kept dropping cast members. But now with the latest ones having the full cast, I can see and appreciate how 2F2F and TD fit into the whole story.
Oh and one thing I didn't notice when I saw it at the cinema (as then it had been AGES since I saw the other ones) the undercover cop lass from 2F2F appears in the mid credits scene at the end of F5!
Also some random trivia: in TD there are two fishermen watching the main guy (Lucas Black) practice his drifting. They have nothing really to do with anything, they are just random fishermen making comments about his bad drifting. And when he gets it right, one of them says something like "he's good!". Well that guy is the REAL LIFE drift king in Japan! holy shit!
They are making a 6th one, will be due in 2013 or 2014. I really hope that they set it after TD, and have Lucas Black as his new crew member at least just to clarify the time line of the movies. It wouldn't make any sense at all for the Japanese guy to be in it as he dies in a car crash in TD, and at the end of F5 he is on his way to Tokyo after he visits Berlin. ALTHOUGH they could still get away with it without destroying the time line by setting the 6th one in Berlin. But they wouldn't be that stupid.... right?
There are a few strange continuity things like for example at the end of 2F2F, the guy and his friend take some of the evidence money to go and open a shop for car stuffs or something. But yet in F&F the guy has reenlisted and is now a fed, and his friend is no where in sight. And when his friend appears again in F5, there is no explanation as to what happened between the two of them.
I suppose you could use your imagination: the money ran out, they went their separate ways, then the guy needs a job so he reenlists. Or maybe big foot stomped on their shop.... or maybe an alien ship landed on the shop or... or....
So yeah the 6th one will be about Dom's girl friend as she was spotted on some CCTV (she supposedly got killed off in F&F) and why she didn't contact him or whatever.
Thanks for reading!
With this I am FINALLY clear of the movie timeline. It is as follows (well for now at least):
- The Fast and the Furious
- 2 Fast 2 Furious
- Fast and Furious
- Fast Five
- Tokyo Drift
I have fully enjoyed all of the movies, yes including TD. You see when I first saw TD I wasn't that pleased with it. Same with 2F2F for that matter, as they kept dropping cast members. But now with the latest ones having the full cast, I can see and appreciate how 2F2F and TD fit into the whole story.
Oh and one thing I didn't notice when I saw it at the cinema (as then it had been AGES since I saw the other ones) the undercover cop lass from 2F2F appears in the mid credits scene at the end of F5!
Also some random trivia: in TD there are two fishermen watching the main guy (Lucas Black) practice his drifting. They have nothing really to do with anything, they are just random fishermen making comments about his bad drifting. And when he gets it right, one of them says something like "he's good!". Well that guy is the REAL LIFE drift king in Japan! holy shit!
They are making a 6th one, will be due in 2013 or 2014. I really hope that they set it after TD, and have Lucas Black as his new crew member at least just to clarify the time line of the movies. It wouldn't make any sense at all for the Japanese guy to be in it as he dies in a car crash in TD, and at the end of F5 he is on his way to Tokyo after he visits Berlin. ALTHOUGH they could still get away with it without destroying the time line by setting the 6th one in Berlin. But they wouldn't be that stupid.... right?
There are a few strange continuity things like for example at the end of 2F2F, the guy and his friend take some of the evidence money to go and open a shop for car stuffs or something. But yet in F&F the guy has reenlisted and is now a fed, and his friend is no where in sight. And when his friend appears again in F5, there is no explanation as to what happened between the two of them.
I suppose you could use your imagination: the money ran out, they went their separate ways, then the guy needs a job so he reenlists. Or maybe big foot stomped on their shop.... or maybe an alien ship landed on the shop or... or....
So yeah the 6th one will be about Dom's girl friend as she was spotted on some CCTV (she supposedly got killed off in F&F) and why she didn't contact him or whatever.
Thanks for reading!
Monday, 29 August 2011
The Fast and the X-men
Hi guys! so the other movie series I have been watching this week is the 'Fast and the Furious'. Since the latest movie in the franchise is out on Blu Ray, I decided to watch through the whole series.
The very basics of these movies is about driving, awesome cars and fast paced adrenaline pumping action! We start to loose cast members as we go into the second movie (2 Fast 2 Furious). In fact only one cast member remains from the first one (Paul Walker) as we go into the second movie, and we get a whole new cast in the third one (Tokyo Drift). The main cast returns in the forth (Fast and Furious) and fifth (Fast Five). We also start to loose the street racing element too as the franchise goes on, which really isn't a bad thing.
I have watched through the first two so far; was tempting to skip 'Tokyo Drift' altogether as it is more of a spin off BUT the Japanese guy in that ends up with the main cast later one. One of the great things about 'Fast Five' is that it has cast members from all of the movies! I'll not go into detail about the plot, but if you like driving scenes, cool cars, and old skool action then check this movie series out if you haven't already.
Other stuff I have watched this week (and weekend) 'X-men: first class'. This is a reboot of the movie franchise that will be running concurrently with the other X-men movie franchise. It's about the very start of it all, Charles Xavier gets approached by a lass from the government to take down some badguys with poiwers (mutants of course). He joins up with the guy that becomes Magneto allong with other folk, and take down an ex Nazi guy with the power to absorb any amounts of energy.
All this is set during the 60's cold war Cuban missile crisis. The bad guy wants nuclear war so he can rule the world and the usual stuff bad guys do.
I found this better than the other X-men movies, as it dealt more with the true team dynamic instead of being mostly about wolverine. There was however a cameo appearance. Hopefully they concentrate on this reboot series of the franchise instead of making X-men 4, which is planned....bah. Let's not go into how disappointing the third X-men movie was..
Going to be watching Thor some time this week, but for a bit of a change we will be watching some foreign movies. Some Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen, and some ultra violent strange Japanese gore feasts, with a bit of Korean action on the side.
Look forward to a report on that! or nor.....
Thanks for reading!
The very basics of these movies is about driving, awesome cars and fast paced adrenaline pumping action! We start to loose cast members as we go into the second movie (2 Fast 2 Furious). In fact only one cast member remains from the first one (Paul Walker) as we go into the second movie, and we get a whole new cast in the third one (Tokyo Drift). The main cast returns in the forth (Fast and Furious) and fifth (Fast Five). We also start to loose the street racing element too as the franchise goes on, which really isn't a bad thing.
I have watched through the first two so far; was tempting to skip 'Tokyo Drift' altogether as it is more of a spin off BUT the Japanese guy in that ends up with the main cast later one. One of the great things about 'Fast Five' is that it has cast members from all of the movies! I'll not go into detail about the plot, but if you like driving scenes, cool cars, and old skool action then check this movie series out if you haven't already.
Other stuff I have watched this week (and weekend) 'X-men: first class'. This is a reboot of the movie franchise that will be running concurrently with the other X-men movie franchise. It's about the very start of it all, Charles Xavier gets approached by a lass from the government to take down some badguys with poiwers (mutants of course). He joins up with the guy that becomes Magneto allong with other folk, and take down an ex Nazi guy with the power to absorb any amounts of energy.
All this is set during the 60's cold war Cuban missile crisis. The bad guy wants nuclear war so he can rule the world and the usual stuff bad guys do.
I found this better than the other X-men movies, as it dealt more with the true team dynamic instead of being mostly about wolverine. There was however a cameo appearance. Hopefully they concentrate on this reboot series of the franchise instead of making X-men 4, which is planned....bah. Let's not go into how disappointing the third X-men movie was..
Going to be watching Thor some time this week, but for a bit of a change we will be watching some foreign movies. Some Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen, and some ultra violent strange Japanese gore feasts, with a bit of Korean action on the side.
Look forward to a report on that! or nor.....
Thanks for reading!
Planet of the apes
We have planned to go and see 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' some time next month (yes I know it is already out) so of course some homework needed to be done. I have seen all five Apes movies before round about ten years ago, so I had mostly forgotten the happenings. On top of that, one of my friends that lives next door had never ever seen them (and he is also coming along to see the new one) so we have been slowly watching through. So far we have only seen the first two.
They are both basic in plot, and are quite over acted. They sort of remind me of the old Star Trek series which was made around about the same time. Both have Charlton Heston staring, although he is only in the second one at the very beginning and at the very end.
First one is about a guy (Heston) on a space mission of some sort. They land on a planet, travel around quite a bit, come across talking apes, get captured, escape, yadda yadda. And at the end he realises he is on Earth in the future as he sees the statue of liberty sticking out of the sand on the beach. He then gets off his horse and has another one of his mental breakdowns. Those where the best bits, his over acting and going mental my favorite line being "IT'S A MADHOUSE IN HERE!!!!! A MAAAADDD HOUSE!!!!!" while some "damn dirty ape" sprays him with a hose pipe.
The second one, another astronaut crash lands meets Heston's woman (she has flash backs of him vanishing into a cliff), meets the apes, escapes with Heston's woman, finds remains of NewYork's train network (realising of course he was on earth), finds some weird telepath guys that worship a dooms day device, and they have Heston held captive. The apes go to war with the weird guys, Heston's cave woman gets shot, the other guy gets shot, Heston gets shot and as he is dying presses the detonation button for the doomsday device. Earth is destroyed according to the text displayed at the end of the movie.
But wait, there are three more! what the heck.... We will watch those at some point but not the Tim Burton remake. Not terrible by all means, but it was a bit of a flopedodah in moor ways than one.
They are both basic in plot, and are quite over acted. They sort of remind me of the old Star Trek series which was made around about the same time. Both have Charlton Heston staring, although he is only in the second one at the very beginning and at the very end.
First one is about a guy (Heston) on a space mission of some sort. They land on a planet, travel around quite a bit, come across talking apes, get captured, escape, yadda yadda. And at the end he realises he is on Earth in the future as he sees the statue of liberty sticking out of the sand on the beach. He then gets off his horse and has another one of his mental breakdowns. Those where the best bits, his over acting and going mental my favorite line being "IT'S A MADHOUSE IN HERE!!!!! A MAAAADDD HOUSE!!!!!" while some "damn dirty ape" sprays him with a hose pipe.
The second one, another astronaut crash lands meets Heston's woman (she has flash backs of him vanishing into a cliff), meets the apes, escapes with Heston's woman, finds remains of NewYork's train network (realising of course he was on earth), finds some weird telepath guys that worship a dooms day device, and they have Heston held captive. The apes go to war with the weird guys, Heston's cave woman gets shot, the other guy gets shot, Heston gets shot and as he is dying presses the detonation button for the doomsday device. Earth is destroyed according to the text displayed at the end of the movie.
But wait, there are three more! what the heck.... We will watch those at some point but not the Tim Burton remake. Not terrible by all means, but it was a bit of a flopedodah in moor ways than one.
Sunday, 28 August 2011
I am number four
We have all done this. Looked at a movie trailer and though "wow awesome!!!" and then come to actually watching the movie and it turns out to be not the awesome movie you where expecting.
The movie in question here is is 'I am number four'. The basic idea for the movie is this: a planet gets invaded by some aliens, everyone gets killed. There are nine of them with special abilities but they didn't mature enough for them to save the planet. (we find this out in the narrative, we don't actually get to see all of this). They get put into pods or ships or whatever and they end up on earth. The invading aliens start to track them all down, killing them in order (no explanation as to why they all had numbers or how the numbering came about).
The movie starts out with a guy (suppose to be in his teens, but typically he looked over 20..... stupid Hollywood) with his mates jet skying and hanging out on the beach. He gets a text from a girl that wants to meet him out in the water, at night (que the advertisement for a fruit themed tech toy that only tossers that show off in star bucks use. This advertisement goes on all throughout the movie). So then a circle on his leg lights up and he sees a vision of someone being killed. Chick swims away rather sharpish and he wakes up on the beach the next day.
So apparently the guy is on the run from the aliens trying to kill him. He is with his 'guardian' some sort of warrior guy with little swords that light up on the ends. They end up in a small town where he goes to high school using forged documents to get in. So now it turns into a typical American teen drama with all the cliches that come with it. Idiot football jocks, blond haired love interest and all that other boring rubbish. This goes on for half of the movie *yawn*.
He finds how to use his powers, glowing hands, he can run fast yadda yadda. There is also another chick looking for him. She blows up the building he used to live in at the beach with an unnecessary forced explosion scene. We see she has powers too. So he makes friends with a science geek/alien freak guy; turns out his father disappeared while helping number four's guardian.
So the bad guys catch up with him, try to kill him etc. The other chick turns out to be number six, they combine powers, stuff blows up and they kill all the baddies.
At the end number 4four and number six along with the science geek go off in search of the other number folk. And that was it.
It's almost like the movie was two different stories badly plastered together. A story about teen drama rubbish, and a story about aliens. A whole lot of boring stuff leading up to disappointing action scenes, so there was no reward.
Not completely unwatchable, perhaps give it a go if you have nothing else to watch (and with all the movies around this will never happen anyway...). I give this movie a 4 out of 10.
Thanks for reading.
The movie in question here is is 'I am number four'. The basic idea for the movie is this: a planet gets invaded by some aliens, everyone gets killed. There are nine of them with special abilities but they didn't mature enough for them to save the planet. (we find this out in the narrative, we don't actually get to see all of this). They get put into pods or ships or whatever and they end up on earth. The invading aliens start to track them all down, killing them in order (no explanation as to why they all had numbers or how the numbering came about).
The movie starts out with a guy (suppose to be in his teens, but typically he looked over 20..... stupid Hollywood) with his mates jet skying and hanging out on the beach. He gets a text from a girl that wants to meet him out in the water, at night (que the advertisement for a fruit themed tech toy that only tossers that show off in star bucks use. This advertisement goes on all throughout the movie). So then a circle on his leg lights up and he sees a vision of someone being killed. Chick swims away rather sharpish and he wakes up on the beach the next day.
So apparently the guy is on the run from the aliens trying to kill him. He is with his 'guardian' some sort of warrior guy with little swords that light up on the ends. They end up in a small town where he goes to high school using forged documents to get in. So now it turns into a typical American teen drama with all the cliches that come with it. Idiot football jocks, blond haired love interest and all that other boring rubbish. This goes on for half of the movie *yawn*.
He finds how to use his powers, glowing hands, he can run fast yadda yadda. There is also another chick looking for him. She blows up the building he used to live in at the beach with an unnecessary forced explosion scene. We see she has powers too. So he makes friends with a science geek/alien freak guy; turns out his father disappeared while helping number four's guardian.
So the bad guys catch up with him, try to kill him etc. The other chick turns out to be number six, they combine powers, stuff blows up and they kill all the baddies.
At the end number 4four and number six along with the science geek go off in search of the other number folk. And that was it.
It's almost like the movie was two different stories badly plastered together. A story about teen drama rubbish, and a story about aliens. A whole lot of boring stuff leading up to disappointing action scenes, so there was no reward.
Not completely unwatchable, perhaps give it a go if you have nothing else to watch (and with all the movies around this will never happen anyway...). I give this movie a 4 out of 10.
Thanks for reading.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Fun at the home arcade
Hi guys, so the other day I aquired A Blaze 'home arcade twin shock' from a guy on ebay. These are quite difficult to come by these days, and can go for a high price.
Let's take a peek at it shall we? (arcade stick is NOT a euphemism for something else as you can see...)
This is the 'standard' silver version and not the 'special edition' black one. This uses cheap type parts, buttons are not micro-switched; instead they are connected to PCBs with standard buttons (they work the same way as standard game controllers, remote controls, etc).
The sticks themselves are micro-switched, but they are el-cheapo made. It's in decent condition, a few scuffs at the front, but this can be touched up.
Being a playstation stick, I can use it on the PS1, PS2, Dreamcast (via EMS adapters), and on the PC (via any old cheap USB adapter) so pretty much it's a universal controller.
Trying it out I noticed a couple of problems with the button placement; start and select are too easy to accidentally hit while in game (pausing the game). It has a 'slow' button which really is just like hitting start over and over. A common feature on third party controllers from the megadrive days and as it was even back then, it is rather redundant.
One of the sticks was faulty, but was an easy fix. One of the micro switches in the left stick was stuck inwards so a quick disassemble of the case, then the stick part itself, and a quick poke with a screwdriver (get that dirty thought out of your mind right now!) it clicked back into place and now works as designed. Is that good or bad? well...
Since they are cheap parts, the sticks are rubbish for fighters such as Street Fighter, and King of Fighters. A right pain in the arse to pull off moves. For fighters you really need quality arcade parts such as from sanwa. Buttons are ok though....
I will be modding this later on, but it will take allot of work. For the buttons as they are not standard 30mm like sanwa, I'll have to use 24mm ones instead. Others have used Korean crown buttons for this, but they are hard to find in the UK, and probably would be expensive anyway. I have found some 24mm standard arcade buttons on gremlin solutions, so as long as they are not too long (limited room inside the casing) then those should be fine. As for sticks, I would like sanwa ones but I'll need to dremil and drill and such to get them mounted inside the case. One thing I will be doing is relocating the start and select buttons to the top row, getting rid of the 'slow' button and putting the turbo buttons where the start and select are now.
So there you have it! with a bit of work, this will be used as my control pannel on my future arcade machine setup ;-) saves me making one from scratch! not bad at £25 + £5 postage.
Thanks for reading!
Let's take a peek at it shall we? (arcade stick is NOT a euphemism for something else as you can see...)
The sticks themselves are micro-switched, but they are el-cheapo made. It's in decent condition, a few scuffs at the front, but this can be touched up.
Being a playstation stick, I can use it on the PS1, PS2, Dreamcast (via EMS adapters), and on the PC (via any old cheap USB adapter) so pretty much it's a universal controller.
Trying it out I noticed a couple of problems with the button placement; start and select are too easy to accidentally hit while in game (pausing the game). It has a 'slow' button which really is just like hitting start over and over. A common feature on third party controllers from the megadrive days and as it was even back then, it is rather redundant.
One of the sticks was faulty, but was an easy fix. One of the micro switches in the left stick was stuck inwards so a quick disassemble of the case, then the stick part itself, and a quick poke with a screwdriver (get that dirty thought out of your mind right now!) it clicked back into place and now works as designed. Is that good or bad? well...
Since they are cheap parts, the sticks are rubbish for fighters such as Street Fighter, and King of Fighters. A right pain in the arse to pull off moves. For fighters you really need quality arcade parts such as from sanwa. Buttons are ok though....
I will be modding this later on, but it will take allot of work. For the buttons as they are not standard 30mm like sanwa, I'll have to use 24mm ones instead. Others have used Korean crown buttons for this, but they are hard to find in the UK, and probably would be expensive anyway. I have found some 24mm standard arcade buttons on gremlin solutions, so as long as they are not too long (limited room inside the casing) then those should be fine. As for sticks, I would like sanwa ones but I'll need to dremil and drill and such to get them mounted inside the case. One thing I will be doing is relocating the start and select buttons to the top row, getting rid of the 'slow' button and putting the turbo buttons where the start and select are now.
So there you have it! with a bit of work, this will be used as my control pannel on my future arcade machine setup ;-) saves me making one from scratch! not bad at £25 + £5 postage.
Thanks for reading!
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Fortress Craft
Hi guys, so lately I've been playing allot of fortress craft. And when I say allot, I mean hours at a time. In this game all you do is build things out of blocks. Sort of like Lego I suppose. This is an indie game available on Xbox live, and it will set you back 240 Microsoft Xbox points. This is round about £3. It is worth that and a hell of allot more as you will get hours, weeks, months and perhaps years of enjoyment. Well that is if you like building stuff with virtual blocks. The game is updated quite often with bug fixes and new features.
You have a few options before starting your world, you can have it as hilly as you want, or you can have it completely flat. Every time you go into your made world you can choose whether you want other people to build with you. You have 2 options to set, one for friends (that is people on your friends list on your xbox) and there is an option to set for everyone else. You can choose between "join only", "join and edit" or "blocked". So for example you can block everyone else, and have just your friends join, or you can allow everyone to build with you, friends or strangers.
A word of warning though; there are people out there that will just come to your world just to destroy your creations, so choose wisely! Personally I choose "join only" for both friends and guests, as I don't want anyone touching my creations. You can visit though just to look...
A while ago I made a video of my world, so without further a do.... here it is!
I have done allot more since then, so I'll make another video some time in the next few days.
Thanks for reading (and watching).
You have a few options before starting your world, you can have it as hilly as you want, or you can have it completely flat. Every time you go into your made world you can choose whether you want other people to build with you. You have 2 options to set, one for friends (that is people on your friends list on your xbox) and there is an option to set for everyone else. You can choose between "join only", "join and edit" or "blocked". So for example you can block everyone else, and have just your friends join, or you can allow everyone to build with you, friends or strangers.
A word of warning though; there are people out there that will just come to your world just to destroy your creations, so choose wisely! Personally I choose "join only" for both friends and guests, as I don't want anyone touching my creations. You can visit though just to look...
A while ago I made a video of my world, so without further a do.... here it is!
I have done allot more since then, so I'll make another video some time in the next few days.
Thanks for reading (and watching).
From the dark corners of the interwebs!
Hi people. I decided to start this blog mainly due to my lapsed typing skills. The other day I saw helping out a family member with typing up an assignment on the computer, and in doing so realised I was making a TON of typing errors. I can still type at a really fast speed but at a high error rate. So here we are.
I'll use this space for talking about video game related things, comic book things, movie things etc etc. Since I've got into making videos; I'll post them up too. I think I can embed youtube vids on here since this place is also owned by google (to my surprise! when my college teacher used this page as a bulletin board, it was not google owned as I recall!)
Speaking of videos, to record I use a kodak 14mp digital cam that has HD video recording features (I cannot afford a DVR). Trouble is it eats batteries. I can't use normal rechargables with it as it will drain them in about 3 mins (even 2700 batteries). It takes a li-ion battery though which does last about 15 mins recording video. It is a third party chinese make kind of one, and I read that the offical kodak ones last allot longer. Trouble is though they are expensive.
What I would like to do is power it by mains adapter when using it at home. There is no adapter to power it and then use it while it is powered. What I was thinking is an empty battery shell with a wire coming from it, then that going to a mains adapter. I have googled 'till the cows come home but not found anything like that. The only way would be to make one myself. I have spare standard connections power adapters that run at various voltages. The li-on is 3 volts according to the label, power adapters are around 5 volts, so I would need some resistors and whatnot. No idea whre to even start. I'll ask on some forums perhaps.
Do I get achevemnt points for my first blog post? what this is not xbox? ohhhhhhhh nevermind then.
Thanks for reading.
I'll use this space for talking about video game related things, comic book things, movie things etc etc. Since I've got into making videos; I'll post them up too. I think I can embed youtube vids on here since this place is also owned by google (to my surprise! when my college teacher used this page as a bulletin board, it was not google owned as I recall!)
Speaking of videos, to record I use a kodak 14mp digital cam that has HD video recording features (I cannot afford a DVR). Trouble is it eats batteries. I can't use normal rechargables with it as it will drain them in about 3 mins (even 2700 batteries). It takes a li-ion battery though which does last about 15 mins recording video. It is a third party chinese make kind of one, and I read that the offical kodak ones last allot longer. Trouble is though they are expensive.
What I would like to do is power it by mains adapter when using it at home. There is no adapter to power it and then use it while it is powered. What I was thinking is an empty battery shell with a wire coming from it, then that going to a mains adapter. I have googled 'till the cows come home but not found anything like that. The only way would be to make one myself. I have spare standard connections power adapters that run at various voltages. The li-on is 3 volts according to the label, power adapters are around 5 volts, so I would need some resistors and whatnot. No idea whre to even start. I'll ask on some forums perhaps.
Do I get achevemnt points for my first blog post? what this is not xbox? ohhhhhhhh nevermind then.
Thanks for reading.
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