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Revisiting Shining Force with RacketBoy

2011-11-12T13:19:00.001-08:00

Together Retro Game Club: Shining Force

There's a great retro-gaming blogger I've been following off and on for the last half-decade or so named RacketBoy. He's been able to attract a bit of help over the years, and consequently, his blog has grown to span a variety topics which can easily gobble a few hours out of the average retro-enthusiast's day.

The site is a fantastic resource for those new to retro-game collecting. The "guides" section chronicles essential games to get your started in your quest to experience an older console.

The site even offers direct sales for obscure cables required to mate older consoles with newer displays.

One of my favorite pieces on the site is the "Together Retro" section, which chooses one retro game per month for participants to revisit together, sharing their play-experiences over the forum.

Many of the games selected for this feature will be a re-tread down memory lane for old gamers like myself. In other cases, the exercise provides an excuse to tackle an old game missed over the years.

November's selection for me proved the latter.

Shining Force is an old Sega title which has languished on my backlog list for years. Check the link for a decent synopsis, but very quickly, it was Sega's answer to Fire Emblem, or the Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics which came along much later. All of these Strategy RPG games provided prototypical material for the modern Blizzard powerhouses: StarCraft, and earlier versions of WarCraft, which popularized the real-time strategy games which had existed for years on the PC.

It's great to go back and check out some of the early console versions of this genre. Shining Force had a number of re-releases on later consoles. The Gameboy Advance version is widely considered a quality remake, with brushed up graphics, and some nice extras. I haven't got a copy of the cartridge, and not wanting to spend any time re-learning how to enable the save feature on my old SuperCard, decided to go with the emulated XBox 360 version included on my Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection disc. This release includes a handy autosave feature which is a handy tool when revisiting older titles.

Finished off the first chapter: Runefaust Invasion last night. I was surprised at how well the game has aged. No matter how pretty the battle animations were in any of the old SRPG's, inevitably, they become repetitive and long, and I find myself disabling them in favour of expediency. This has been my universal experience with every Fire Emblem release I've played (my favourite series of the genre.) My 360 version of Shining Force doesn't have this disable feature, but the transitions are quick, and the animations brief enough that it hasn't yet become an issue. We'll see how long that lasts.

On to Chapter 2!

Own This World – Buy This Game

2011-06-22T22:23:00.001-07:00

Seriously – buy it. It’s a frickin’ dollar for Christ’s sake.

It’s GPS Risk for your phone, and cool dudes from Calgary made it.

It’s one dollar!

Download here

My Love Letter to Microsoft re: Cross-platform functionality in Canada.

2011-06-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

Originally posted here: http://bit.ly/ju0U5F

_________________________________

Can't find a forum on the WP7 or the Zune websites, so sorry to post this here. Figured it would be ok, since various Microsoft departments must communicate with each other quite well right?

Bought a WP7 phone recently. Have two 360 consoles, and 3 PC's running Windows 7.

Was really looking forward to the standardization of media across all platforms.

Then I found out a couple things.

1. No Zune Pass in Canada.

2. Zune is incapable of searching for, and subscribing to podcasts through it's marketplace in Canada.

3. No ability to update podcasts wirelessly on the road through Zune,.

What!?

How can something iTunes has been doing for years simply not be possible through Zune across an entire country?

This, for me, is the core functionality of the entire platform.

I can understand why the Zune Pass may be on hold. I know Microsoft doesn't have total control over all the silly copyright issues at play, and that it takes some time to sort out. (though Netflix seemed to get it all squared away.)

But the lack of podcast functionality is beyond comprehension. I have been able to manually enter RSS feeds to subscribe to podcasts that way, but there's far lighter freeware programs out there that would do that. I was looking forward to the browsing features of iTunes, and the social aspects of Zune. None of that is available, and I'm very quickly running out of patience.

I resisted moving to an iPhone, while all my friends did. I also resisted adopting the Android platform, which was very attractive as I use a lot of Google's apps. Instead, I limped along with my Windows Mobile 6 phone for two years after my contract expired, because I was so certain WP7 would integrate so well with every other piece of Microsoft hardware in my house. I even held on a bit longer after the WP7 launch, thinking that, "these guys will get the functionality worked out... it's just a matter of months."

No such luck. It looks like all the warnings of my friends are beginning to come true. My questions to a Zune support staff resulted only in the answer: "We have no information on any of this."

It's really unfortunate. It's doubtful there are more loyal Microsoft customers out there than me. But even my patience have their limits. I have a few months remaining on my Xbox Live subscription, and if the three items above aren't remedied by the time it expires, I'll feel like I gave WP7 and Zune the best chance that could be expected. I'll exercise the ability in my carrier contract to swap my WP7 out mid-term for another platform. I won't renew my Xbox Live subscription, and I'll start investing in another platform entirely.

Haven't really felt this way since Sega released the 32X, Saturn and Dreamcast within months of each other, without any thought to how these devices would work together.

Really hope you guys can pull the platform off, and make it a success. It really does have so much potential, with cross-platform functionality at it's core.

Consumers, of course, can only be expected to endure so much.

Strong Public Sector Jobs Strengthen Private Sector Wages.

2011-06-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

In response to the June 8 2011 Editorial appearing in the Prince George Citizen entitled: SAYONARA SNAIL MAIL?

Dear Editor,

Glad to see your paper acknowledge that Canada Post, a crown corp turning healthy profits for a decade and a half, remains the most cost-effective and efficient delivery service going.

I disagree, however with your editorial's assertion that the "tide of sympathy doesn't appear to be with the workers," or that "people are asking: 'why should workers with job security, good pensions and good wages get an even better deal, especially when those in the private sector aren't?"

To which people are you referring? The only person I've heard make that argument is Ezra Levant from Sun TV, a man yet to discover Canadians recognize the difference between journalistic integrity and unsupported right-wing assertions.

And to which private sector workers are you comparing postal workers? Are you talking about the private sector tradesperson who makes $50/hour, has a company truck, a gas card, and a 100% employer–paid pension? Or are you talking about the private sector burger flipper at Pat Bell's Wendy's making minimum wage? Perhaps you're referring to the private sector CEO, who on average in

Canada

, is now approaching earnings of $7.5 million per year?

In any scenario, how do any of these comparisons trivialize the desire of working people to see their wages keep pace with rising prices, to secure a safe and healthy retirement, and to ensure they don't risk missing a mortgage payment every time they fall ill?

One group of workers achieving fair earnings does not restrict the ability of another group to do the same. Quite the contrary, when workers in one sector successfully regain their lost share of the profit pie from CEOs who as a group, now obscenely hoard more real dollars than any other point in Canadian history - those workers strengthen the ability of workers in other sectors to also re-balance the equation.

Last time the income gap in

Canada

reached similar proportions, we suffered the Great Depression. The smaller the income gap between workers and CEOs, the more money rests in the pockets of consumers. This hard economic reality strengthens the middle class and by extension, the fortunes of the small business sector which depends on middle class spending power.

The resolve of Canada Post employees to resist their bosses' efforts to roll them back now, when prices are rising so fast, is a fight benefitting all of us. They've undertaken it because they can. Too many of us work in non-union environments where we've no option but to accept the concessions imposed by our employer.

Rural Canadians, like those of us in Prince George, understand better than anyone the vital importance of this fight, and support postal workers for standing strong. Their success represents a victory for citizens and business, particularly here in the North who all depend on a strong, efficient, public mail service.

Perhaps more importantly, Northerners also understand the need to protect the few family-supporting jobs our communities still have left.

Aaron Ekman | President

North Central Labour Council

Doug Saunders’ lastest “progressive” tax argument, insults intelligence

2011-04-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

Doug Saunders, author of Arrival City, has just hatched a fledging argument aimed at perpetrating identify theft on the progressive tax movement in his article entitled: “Abolishing Corporate Tax is a Progressive Cause.”

In an effort to provide sputtering Neo-Cons with a life-preserver following the near-universal refutation of their “Corporate tax hikes kill jobs,” position, Saunders claims progressive taxationists have it backwards.

To establish his “progressive-cred,” Saunders claims to have predicted the U.S. recession the moment the Republicans sent him “...a second cheque in the mail,” amounting to $700.

Quickly shifting gears, he describes corporate tax as having a “reverse Robin Hood” effect, because “big corporations have no trouble avoiding it.”

Additionally, taxation allows for too much power in the hands of corporations, according the Saunders. Presumably, he’s suggesting a corporation as a primary funder of government, would hold enormous sway via their ability to withhold payment.

He discounts, of course, the enormous sway corporations already hold via the millions they spend annually on lobbyists and donations to friendly political parties and politicians.

He discounts as well, the diminished power governments retain comparative to increasingly-powerful corporations, as their tax rates plummet. Wal-Mart, for instance, paying its workforce the absolute bare minimum allowable by law, currently generates more annual profit than all municipal governments, and an increasing number of countries.

The U.S. and Canada's respective Tax Revenue Agencies waste no time hammering workers for missing a payment, threatening fines and even jail time in many cases. Corporations, however, should not be held to the same standard according to Saunders. His solution?

“He [Obama] should have talked about abolishing it [corporate tax]. So should Canadian and European leaders.”

“Since corporations do not physically exist,” he says, “corporate tax is ultimately paid by individuals…” a phenomenon he blames on progressive taxationist theory, such as that promoted in documentaries like, The Corporation.

Most classic bait-and-switch arguments contain one or more severe contradictions. Saunders’ does not disappoint when he calls for a tax system which “…would place the burden entirely on personal income tax.”

Yes, you’ve read correctly. He does damn corporate tax on one hand for being a tax borne ultimately by individuals, while lauding on the other hand personal income tax for being a tax borne by individuals.

The economic reality is that personal income tax is just as easy to avoid by the rich and their high paid accountants – working year-round to identify off-shore accounts, loopholes, corporate-expense masks, etc. In stark contrast, a summer student at H&R Block spends 40 minutes once a year filing taxes for the rest of us.

Doug Saunders true aim here, while donning progressive-sheeps clothing to articulate it: is to provide Neo-Cons with updated economic spin to justify further reductions in corporate taxation rates. Further, he's pegged a target: 0% taxation rate for corporations.

Laughable, really, considering not even the queen gets it that good any more. In Canada, the decline piece of government revenue pie generated by taxing rich corporations, bears a direct correlation to government’s diminishing ability to adequately fund our health-care system.

Instead of examining this unsustainable economic direction, however, right wing politicians avoid scrutiny entirely by throwing out the tired old catch-phrase, “you can’t just throw money at the health-care crises.”

Funny how you never hear them use that phrase in same sentence as “campaign donations.”

Aaron Ekman is the president of the North Central Labour Council, and resides in Prince George British Columbia.

Saltspring Island

2011-02-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

Great day with Nat on the beach in February

calibre – eReader software for Windows

2011-02-08T00:26:00.001-08:00

Great piece of open-sourced software for organizing, converting and transferring ePub files to and from your Kobo or Kindle eReader.

Near weekly beta updates can be a touch annoying, as depending on how much transferring you do, you’re libel to meet an update each time you use the program.

Depending on the complexity of the PDF file you’re attempting to convert into ePub, the final conversion may suffer from distortion rough enough to render a document unreadable. May well be an Adobe issue rather than attributable to the software.

Despite it’s faults, I find it indispensable for both my Kobo and Kindle eReaders. Use it far more than native software for either device.

calibre - Download for Windows

Great New Blog in Prince George

2010-08-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Check out North of Centre, a fantastic civic-issues-based blog by local blogger and student activist Devan Tasa.

Covers municipal issues in Prince George from a progressive perspective.

Great Wedding, Great People

2010-07-19T23:38:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Sussanne and Stacey on their wedding last weekend.

Fantastic times, beautiful surroundings, good people, great memories.

Play Cave Story on Multiple Computers

2010-04-18T23:45:00.001-07:00

Been playing as much of Cave Story as possible over the weekend. It's the perfect game for short spurts. Really needs to be released on the DS.

Since that hasn't happened yet, I was brainstorming ways to play the game on multiple laptops. For instance, I've got my home laptop, which comes with me on weekends. During the week, however, it's the work laptop which accompanies me to the café at lunch for some non-work related net surfing.

So the obvious solution for playing the game on two laptops without having to worry about multiple save files, is to play the game off of a thumb drive. Cave Story comes as a self-executable file right outta the zip package, which means it doesn't require registry edits in Windows. In other words, it plays off a thumb drive really nice.

Thumb drives have never been my tool of choice, however. Way too easy to lose. I know myself too well, and so I've never relied on them.

Dropbox, however... Now there's a tool. If you haven't installed this little app on every computer you use yet, google it, and get to work. You get 2 Gigs of free space without having to pay for the upgrade, and it looks just like another folder in your My Documents tank, except that anything you put in there is automatically synced with any other computer you have it installed on, (or a friend's computer if they have an account you've linked to.)

So I just dragged the whole Cave Story program folder into the Dropbox folder, and viola, it's instantly playable on all my other computers. The best part is, my save file is updated on the fly across the mini-network, so I just launch the game from whichever click computer I wanna play It on, and as long as I'm connected to the internet, I pick up right where I left off.

Give it a try!

Sweet deals on games today

2010-04-17T22:41:00.000-07:00

Did a run through Superstore in Prince George BC this afternoon. They've got a $9.99 rack running.

Picked up Cursed Mountain for the Wii, a suspense/horror by Deep Silver that I've been looking to try for some time. It's got a score of 67 on Metacritic, but it looks a little different than the average kiddy Wii title.

Also picked up Konami Classics, Vol. 1 for the XBOX360, for the same price. This is a great deal, considering that among the three titles on the game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is included. That title alone is 800 microsoft points on XBOX Live, which effectively gives you Frogger and Super Contra for free.

And then popping over to Futureshop, I stumbled on Brutal Legend, for $19.99. Pretty sure that price is standard, but it's a pretty sharp drop from its release price.

Always pays to wait.

Cave Story (for free)

2010-04-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have seen the recent release of Cave Story on WiiWare last week.

Solid game for ten bones, certainly worth the price. I'm embarrassed to say, however, that for what's billed as the most well-known indie game available, I hadn't heard boo about it until it showed up on the Wii.

The good folks on the Bit Transmission podcast over at Destrcutoid devoted the lion's share of their 4th episode to this little gem, and it was enough to convince me to check it out.

Word to the wise however. If you've got a decent gamepad for your PC (I use a wired Xbox controller) run the game name through google first and install the free PC version before shelling out the cash for the Wii version. Nothing wrong with the game in it's original form. I started playing it two days ago, and was hooked immediately.

Ridng that old bike round the nabe

2008-05-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

Natalie and I riding around the neighbourhhod earlier this evening

Blogging from my Phone

2008-05-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

Couple reasons for this post. First is to test out the blogging functionality from my phone - along with a photo attachment.

The second is is to post a photo of the old bike I picked off the side of the road in East Van for Natalie. We took it down to a bike shop on main to have it restored, and she's been riding it since.

Test title

2008-05-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

Test body

Simple Open Letter to Nintendo and the CBC

2008-04-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

Please set up a partnership in Canada like the one between Nintendo and the BBC!

Nintendo and the BBC partner to offer "Wii TV"

Nelson's Aspen Switzer plays in Vancouver

2008-04-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

Four flats above the Cobalt, crammed into a newish East Van apartment this Friday night, gathered a crowd of young Vancouverites, eager to take in Aspen Switzer, a new folksy Canadian musical artist, on the western leg of her recent cross-Canada tour.

Flanked by Jessa Koerber's harmonic vocals on one side, and Jesse Lee's acoustic on the other, Switzer and her banjo plowed through the familiar titles from her CD, "Narrow Sky," then added a selection from an upcoming album before ending the first set with her rendition of the progressively political, "Jerusalem Revisited."

The trio's sound - banjo, acoustic guitar, keyboard, and unassisted vocals - came across fully balanced in the intimate and crowded room. Switzer and Koerber's two-part harmonies, solid on their own, would occasionally gain depth from Lee's third-part assistance. Demonstrating an octave range as long as his string-plucking digits, Lee wasted no opportunity to dip from harmonies down into tenor, providing a well received vocal bottom end to round the trio out nicely.

The content of Switzer's Kootenay inspired lyrics detailed personal development, relationships, and her surroundings, without fear of delving into various social and political issues.

You're not likely to see Aspen on Canadian Idol anytime soon, and we're thankful for that. With a few more CD's under her belt, an expanded politically-charged repertoire, along with a decidedly feminist approach to song-writing, Canadians will benefit from a home-grown mainstay - an old soul with a young voice, refreshingly unique and increasingly rare amidst iTunes' overly commercialized fare.

Lend a listen to Aspen Switzer with Thistledown, on Myspace:

or her website

Teachers want bullying game pulled from stores

2008-03-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

It's quite rare that I sit on the fence on any given issue, but this one has me scared right up off the grass.

On one hand, you've got the entire video game censorship debate, which I'm a bit more conservative on than the majority of the industry. I don't think any game should be banned outright - (not even the US Army-funded titles advocating para-military invasions of Venezuela) but I do sympathise with those calling for a more strictly regulated, movie-industry-esque rating system.

I didn't defend the ability in Rockstar's more violent series, (Grand Theft Auto) to pick up a street worker, enjoy her services, carve her up with a chainsaw, and then take all the money from her carcass. In no way did I ever consider that an "artistic expression," and in my view, that game should have been regulated far out of the reach of under-agers.

The main reason I've yet to take a position on Bully, is because quite frankly, I haven't played it. But in light of the new controversy, stemming from a sector I have a good deal of patience for, I fully intend to grab a copy today, and reserve comment until I've completed it.

Until then, here's an article that appeared in the Province this morning.

_____________________________________________

By Clare Ogilvie, The Province

Published: Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Canadian teachers are adding their voices to four million educators globally to try to stop stores from selling an updated teen video game that was rereleased Tuesday.

Bully: Scholarship Edition, produced by Vancouver-based Rockstar Games, pits a 15-year-old student against other students and teachers.

"The concern is that it is glorifying violence, [that] it is glorifying bullying," Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers Federation, said yesterday. "It is a story about a young lad who goes to school and his way of dealing with situations is to bully others."

Noble believes this is the first time teachers have banded together in this way to fight a video game. That's partly because the game is produced in Canada and because the game is set in a school, she said.

When asked why the CTF would take a stand against a game in which no one dies, there is no blood and guts and in which the bully gets as good as he gives, Noble said: "I think people are standing up and speaking out and saying what was acceptable a little while ago is not acceptable anymore."

The game's creator, Sam Houser, said in a press release: "It's really difficult to make a compelling comedy action game about anything, let alone about the experience of being at high school, and we think we achieved something unique with Bully."

At the University of B.C., curriculum studies associate professor Don Krug said trying to get stores to stop selling the video is just a quick fix. It's also likely, he added, that removing it from circulation would simply make it more attractive to kids.

Instead, suggested Krug, caregivers, educators and others should use the game-playing experience to talk about the behaviour. "It is not going to go away," he said.

Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee calls Uncharted: "Racist"

2008-03-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

Great review by Yahtzee over at Zero Punctuation

the Irate Plagiarist

2007-11-29T21:28:00.000-08:00

Anyone who's become a fan of internet-video based game reviewer, "the Angry Video Game Nerd," like I have, should take a look at the video below. It's been compiled to expose a blatant plagiarist calling himself the "Irate Gamer" who's been ripping the Nerd off for quite awhile now - posting horrendously-done remakes of the Nerd's videos on Youtube, bothering to rearrange his words only slightly.

The Angry Video Game Nerd has become an instant cult hit amongst retro-game fans like myself, and it's enraging to see some idiot rip his shit off so blatantly. Even more maddening is that this bastard has either disabled the comment boxes from his YouTube videos, or moderates them heavily, deleting or disabling anything in reference to the Nerd, or anything negative about his rip-offs. The prick even went so far as to have the video below removed from YouTube, citing "copyright infringement," ironically.

To see the real deal, check out the Angry Video Game Nerd at his own site here. Or catch him at another great game-review site here.

Chris Bores (Irate Gamer) - Confession To Plagiarism - More amazing video clips are a click away

Real-Time Wii Games to be Weather-Channel Linked

2007-11-05T09:06:00.001-08:00

Japanese video game site: GameWatch, has reported that the Sega's upcoming Wii game: NiGHTS: Journey into Dreams, will have in-game weather variations depending on what the Wii's weather channel is reporting.

What this translates into, of course, is real-time in game weather that reflects exactly what you're seeing out the window beside you.

Exactly which role weather plays in NiGHTS, beyond adding a new asthetic value, is yet to be seen. The technology is exciting, however, if applied to the upcoming Wii version of Animal Crossing; a game played entirely in real time.

A Wii update of Harvest Moon would undoubtedly benefit from weather channel-linked environments, plausibly affecting when players plant crops, etc.

The development does raise the question of course... when is Nintendo going to make it easy for 3rd party developers to incorporated Miis into games in a meaningful way? Or better yet... when is Nintendo going to do it itself?

Wii Juggernaut Reveals Mortality

2007-11-02T08:31:00.001-07:00

The big story in gaming news this month will undoubtedly be the gradually shrinking lead of the Nintendo Wii over Sony's PS3 in Japan.

Though still outselling Sony's tech-powerhouse by an average of two to one, Nintendo's lead over Sony has decreased now for 4 straight months. Nintendo, of course if asked, will have a number of factors to point to in explanation, but the slowly-shrinking gap should be a warning signal to Nintendo nonetheless: produce some decent games, or get ready for one of the largest upsets in video game history.

With only two weeks to go before the Wii celebrates its first birthday, Nintendo needs to be honest with itself; the runaway success of the Wii is still based primarily on the same novelty it had during launch – Wii Sports. No one can fault Nintendo for riding that success for as long as possible, and unlike the other two market players, Nintendo has been able to sock away a respectable profit with each system it's sold. And believe what you will about whether the Wii's supply problems were planned or otherwise, part of Wii Sport's novelty staying power can be attributed to the difficulty consumers have had finding their own system to play it on.

But seriously… besides its pack-in, what other game has been released that makes people want to go out and buy a Wii? Metroid Prime III, though reportedly fantastic, can hardly be considered such a title. Zelda: Twighlight Princess, purchased primarily at launch, was basically a GameCube game with tacked-on Wii controls, and posted disappointing sales figures. Even my personal favourite so far, Resident Evil 4, was again, a GameCube remake.

The new Mario incarnation, Super Mario Galaxy, out in Japan, and set for release in North America in 2 weeks time is receiving rave reviews, and may generate post-Wii Sports console excitement. Whether it has the console-selling power that Halo III is producing for the XBOX 360, (which outsold the Wii for the first time in a year last month) remains to be seen.

The Wii version of Guitar Hero III, now on store shelves, though a cool, cool title, is unlikely to have the system-moving effect it had on the PS2 due to the overshadowing affect Rock Band, (due out in two weeks on the PS3 & 360 only) threatens the franchise with.

Inversely, it's unlikely that the delay of much-anticipated Super Smash Bros. Brawl will have the negative impact on Nintendo predicted by so many in the industry. Though it undoubtedly takes away from holiday season software buzz, the pushed-back Feb 08 release does give all those lucky enough to find a Wii under their tree Christmas morning, something to look forward to shortly thereafter.

Though it's still far to early for overt optimism, each month Sony shaves an inch off the sales gap with Nintendo adds more credibility to their claim that their Zeppelin PS3 is a slow burner. Their recent price drop has certainly helped in that regard, but it's still not enough make their console accessible to the mainstream. The technological sacrifices Sony has made to bring about this necessary price cut, (lost PS2 compatibility, fewer USB ports, smaller Hard Drive, etc.,) threatens to turn off Sony's target market, and push them towards the 360… at least in North America.

In short, this holiday season will be a bloody console war of historic proportions for the gaming industry. Sony Vs. Nintendo in Japan, Nintendo Vs. Microsoft in North America, and a myriad of dynamics in UK/Europe/Latin America round out a most unpredictable outcome.

Typing of the Wii

2007-10-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

Holy Christ... it's about freakin' time.

Woke up this morning and found my Wii glowing it's calm blue pulse at me. This always makes me happy even though it's often just an email from someone.

Today it was from Nintendo, which made me quiver. So far, I've learned that messages from Nintendo are pretty much gonna be good news.

The boys at "N" didn't disappoint today. A system update was available (version 3.1) they were telling me. "Awesome" I thought, since every new update has brought a few new features.

This one, however, in addition to updating the "Everybody Votes" interface... included system-wide support for a USB keyboard!

Doesn't sound like much to the non-Wii user I imagine. But just imagine writing out a blog posting like this one, with the point-click method of the Wii mote, which had previously been our only option.

Try sending emails, try filling in forms online... or even simply log into a site. Everything becomes a pain in the ass, and essentially the Wii browser had become useless. No longer.

And in a very un-Nintendo move, rather than releasing an over-priced propriety keyboard... any USB unit will do!

Good work big "N"!

Now if only they could do something about the size of the Wii's system memory.

Tetris Grand Master

2007-10-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

My Friend Jason sent this to me, because I was bragging about how crazy hard some Guitar Hero songs were. You've got to see this to believe it. Watch the entire video... it keeps getting more and more insane.

'SingStar Amped' Review (PS2)

2007-10-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

Boring interface, limited selection of songs, only two by women. No option to sing without vocals from original artist which relegates the game to more of a "sing-along" than any form of Karaoke.

And there must be something really wrong with it... cause whenever I play it... it just sounds... well, bad.

$200 plus for Rock Band?

2007-10-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

I dunno... that's a lot of dough to shell out for an entire band's worth of fake plastic equipment... I don't care how much it rocks.

I'm not sure yet if it's being released for the Wii... but if it is... then will it have downloadable songs released for it in the future? I think that would likely be a bit of a strain on the Wii's SD card-based memory. Sounds like a great package for the XBox 360 however.

But irregardless of all that hype... Guitar Hero III IS being released for the Wii... and it will be online multiplayer.

But better yet... it has this song:

Sad, sad, git

2007-10-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

This is your reward if you're sad enough like me, to watch the entire credits in the original Guitar Hero

GameGirl Advance on Facebook and Gaming

2007-09-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Sitting here at home... unloading 150 gigs worth of movies, and video games off my hard drive and on to discs... (an extremely lengthy process) and I've realized that I haven't posted anything game related in months. Yeah... so I suck balls, sorry.

Aaaaaand... I don't have anything new to write about tonight either. The truth is... I haven't bought Metroid Prime Corruption yet... I'm still playing through Resident Evil 4, and nothing else is really that exciting for the Wii at the moment.

So in place of something interesting from me... I'll instead direct you to an interesting article by one of my favourite journalists over at GameGirl Advance about the need for integration between online games and Facebook-like applications.

"Could the Time Sink that is Facebook Help LFG?"

"Jesus, but you can spend a lot of time on Facebook these days. It's the incredible exploding social network. On Facebook now I can attack friends with my zombie army or my pirate army or my hero, Penny Century; I can leave a scribble on a friend's Fun Wall. I can add to my list of books read, films watched, and cities visited around the world. I can join groups with fanciful names like "I judge you when you use poor grammar." I can poke and superpoke and pwn. I can send cocktails and gifts with secret messages..."[more]

Japanese Sales Push Wii Past 360

2007-08-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

According to VG Chartz, Nintendo's little white juggernaut has surpassed Microsoft's 360 in worldwide sales.

The Xbox still has a 2 million plus lead in the US over the Wii, however, in addition to a small lead in Latin American and Europe.

Send More Guns

2007-08-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Could't agree more with this humorous, brief, yet scathing critique of next generation first-person-shooters

Test post

2007-07-31T01:49:00.000-07:00

This is a test posting from Aaron's phone

Why Buying Stocks in the PS3/360 "Wii-Mote" is Financial Suicide

2007-07-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

So, the same company which brought that golf game with the toy golf club to the PS2: In2Games, has raised over 15 million in revenue to develop their new "Fusion" controller for the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles in an effort for Sony and Microsoft to come up with an answer to Nintendo's wildly popular Wii-mote.

Apparently, the long of the short of it is, it's a baton that you can clip ends onto, like a tennis head, a baseball bat head, a golf club... etc. Not unlike many of the third party bits of plastic for the Wii-mote you can find destined for the bargain bin around places like EB Games and Toys R Us.

And if you listen to the official message from In2Games, this controller is so technologically superior to the Wii-mote, than gamers will be making the switch to the other two consoles in droves.

But here's why buying stock in this venture will put you in the poorhouse.

1. Wrong Demographic:
The majority of gamers who have a 360, or who have shelled out dough for a PS3, didn't do so because they wanted a Wii, but had to settle for something 2 or 3 times more expensive. The Wii-mote never appealed to them in the first place. They are the so-called, "Hardcore Gamer" demographic, and waving your hands around in the air to play a game is for pansies. Give them a traditional controller with a couple analog sticks, Gears of War, or God of War II, a HD TV, and they're set. Let the seniors and kiddies wave a frickin' TV remote in the air like fools all they want. The closest this hardcore bunch will go to using a more active style of controller, is to whip out Guitar Hero for a few licks. But that's different. Chicks dig it.

2. Cost Prohibitive:
Developing games that actually use the Fusion controller will be cost-prohibitive for third party developers. Particularly in the case of the PS3, where its cost prohibitive programming for the cell processor without having to spend extra resources trying to code everything to work on some controller made by another company all together. It's so much cheaper to develop that same game for the Wii, and since there's already nearly as many Wii consoles installed worldwide (more in Japan) ins a quarter of the time as the 360, the guaranteed profit margin is far higher. It's very unlikely that we'll see any more games produced for the Fusion than we did for EyeToy. And how many of you even know what that is?

3. Lame Ripoff Factor:
Sony went through a great deal of ridicule just over it's motion sensing six-axis controller that they so obviously rushed through development as a last minute effort to steal some of the hype of the Wii during launch. Nobody really thinks very much of the SixAxis controller as a credible peripheral. Sony has even backed off showcasing it as a key selling point of the console. Some developers incorporated some token shaking into their early launch games, but it's generally underused already. No matter how "technologically advanced" Fusion is compared to the Wii-mote, it's always going to be seen by gamers as a blatant ripoff meant more to take the unique shine off the Wii, than to actually function as an integral part of next gen games from the 360 or the PS3.

4. Same Failed Marketing Pitch:
It's obvious, that reading any statements from In2Games, about the "technological superiority" of the Fusion controller, that they have learned nothing from the mistakes of of Sony with the PS3. If powerhouse technology meant anything to gamers, the Wii wouldn't be the runaway success of this console generation. The PS3 would already be the winner hands down. But Nintendo's little David just outsold Sony's Goliath by 6-1 in June, in both company's home turf: (Japan.) Sales in that country are usually a pretty good litmus test for how the overall console market will play out per generation. If the best In2Games can come up with is that it's technologically superior to the Wii-mote, they've failed before they've begun.

The Wii has never been about technology. It's a Gamecube in smaller packaging for Christ's sake! It's always been about getting people together, and having fun. And it's not even the Wii-mote that is accomplishing that for the console... it's the ways in which Nintendo's programmers have been able to use it. And unless In2Games has a room full of Nintendo-level software designers kicking around... they might as well rename their new controller, "Virtual Boy."

Bullet Hell

2007-06-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

Got this link from Kotaku. It's the final boss scene for the new Japanese arcade shooter by Cave, called: MushiHimeSama

I've never seen a shooter so retarded-difficult as this appears to be in its final boss stage. Shooters are going to have to start moving away from the bullet-hell formula, and maybe back towards the Gradius, R-Type style, because really... where could they possibly go from here?

But more importantly, when is Cave going to work with a company like Treasure, and port this insanity to the Dreamcast?

Wii May Inadvertantly have Become Haven for 1st Per Shooters

2007-06-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Though it's unlikely that they were ever targeting this market, Nintendo may have inadvertently created a console best suited to the FPS genre, (a-la Doom, Quake, Half-life, etc.)

Though the Wii hardware will never lend enough power to compete with the staggering 3D detail of the 360, or the PS3, the control scheme is light-years ahead of the old dual-analog control mold all 360 and PS3 games are forced into.

Red Steel pioneered the structure with it's gun and sword combo, but reportedly did so poorly. "Tanks" contained in "Wii Play" also gave us a taste of what the scheme would feel like.

And most recently, Resident Evil 4, which has just edged Mario Party 8 out of the No.1 seller list for the console, has thus far, utilized the pointer, nun-chuck duo most skillfully. And this was accomplished by Capcom on a title originally programmed for the Gamecube!

Nintendo may have one-upped Capcom in the genre, however, with its delayed, but soon-to-be released Metroid Prime: Corruption. Leaked reviews have pegged the game as extremely tight and well managed. The level design and polish on the game were the culprits behind the title's delay. In my books, however, that kind of delay is music to the ears if it means a better overall game. Publishing deadlines are the number one killer of good solid games.

Price of "Collector Games" Rising

2007-06-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

I've been cruising around eBay the last few days, and most of my time has been spent perusing the price of games by a now defunct company called "Working Designs."

This little gem of an outfit was responsible for three or four of the only truly good games every produced for the Sega CD. Anyone who was ever silly enough to buy that overpriced system, (yes... yes I did) will know what I'm talking about:
* Lunar: the Silver Star
* Lunar: Eternal Blue
* Vay
* Popfull Mail

Well, in addition to making kick ass games, this company simply did everything right from a gamer's perspective. They included tonnes of extras in the packaging, they utilized hardware potential like full-motion video where it was useful, not where it was gimmicky, (yes Digital Pictures, I'm pointing at you.) And most importantly, they ported over tonnes of great Japanese RPG's against all advice, when no-one else dared take the risk. (a role now played less skillfully, but at least played by Atlus)

There were some hiccups with Working Designs' business approach. Kick ass packaging extras cost coin, and WD games never came cheap. They also suffered from a number of delays, largely due to WD's insistence on quality over expediency. (Yes Electronic Arts, UBISoft, you both suck balls)

Being a smaller outfit than many of the growth-mad behemoths today, WD's approach to development oozed collaborativeness. And not just between production managers and designers, but including the sound folks, the animators, the testers, etc. Everyone seems to have been given a great deal of opportunity to contribute to the creative aspect of WD games. The finished products were never overly flashy, or sporting groundbreaking graphics... but they were well-told stories, and how level of attention was always immediately evident.

This holds true even today, apparently. I placed a bid for the Playstation remake of the Lunar: Silver Star, (originally for the Sega CD) and confident that my $55 bid, (at least the cost of the game when released) would hold through to the end, was found with my mouth open as a couple of last minute battlers came in driving the price up to over $100 in the final 3 minutes.

Today, a greater shock caught my as a cope of "Dragon Force" for the Sega Saturn easily went for the asking price of $223.46(CAD).

The seller of both of these games, is claiming to be the writer/producer from WD, Victor Ireland, and is offering to autograph each item he sells, so this, I thought, must have been boosting up the price a bit, but not by much it turns out, as my search for the same titles from different sellers is seeing them go for similar prices.

As retro-gamers begin to develop as a strong subset of the gaming community, I think we'll begin to see more old classics fetch astonishing prices on eBay.

Makes me wish I'd kept all the old boxes for my NES titles!

3rd-party Exclusive to Come to the Wii

2007-06-27T17:55:00.001-07:00

"D3 Publisher of America" has just announced the planned Fall 2007 release of a new hack-n-slash exclusive to the Nintendo Wii, entitled: "Dragon Blade."

Developed by virtually unknown "LAND HO! Co. Ltd.," Dragon Blade doesn't look overly innovative, although it does look fun.

The news in this is not the game in itself, but rather that a small 3rd party developer is making a game exclusively for the Wii.

Traditionally, this only happens to Nintendo in the form of kiddie games, particularly of the Nickelodeon cartoon inspired crappish sort.

A combination of Nintendo's new friendlier attitude towards third party developers and the much lower production costs for the Wii hardware, it's quite possible that games like Dragon blade are the beginning of a trend. One in which we see a number of small developers with small budgets and big ideas find a way to get games out profitably on the little white console that could.

Sony forced to pay over $8.5 million to unpaid employees

2007-06-27T17:06:00.000-07:00

Sony opted to settle with a group of California employees who had banded together to file a class-action lawsuit against the troubled video game console manufacturer for unpaid overtime hours. It cost Sony some $8.5 million to put the mess behind them.

Kudos to the brave employees who opted to take the giant on. And shame on Sony for treating its employees in an illegal fashion.

Some are calling this recent move by Sony employees one of the latest moves in a trend started earlier this year by Electronic Arts employees who extracted over $30 million from that company for exactly the same issue.

Video game producer, Activision has also agreed to a similar settlement with its employees.

Hopefully this trend will continue as video game industry workers take collective steps to improve working conditions in their trade.

Currently, during what is called "crunch time," or the last few weeks preceding a game's launch date, it is considered norm in the industry for workers to pull up 16+ hour shifts while working seven-day weeks.

The Campbell-Liberal government in British Columbia, during their sweeping changes to the BC Employment Standards Act, placed "tech-sector workers" in the same category as farm workers, effectively removing their rights regarding overtime pay, and a numerous other areas. This move is widely considered to have been part of a deal between Campbell and Electronic Arts who owns a large studio in Vancouver. EA was supposed to have built another large centre, purportedly creating tonnes of jobs in the province in exchange for lax labour laws. After Campbell kept his part of the bargain, EA didn't, and when they decided to build their new centre in another city.

This site, set up by two former EA employees, is acting as a watchdog on the industry.

Grand new show

2007-06-27T15:49:00.001-07:00

New show coming out that I can't wait for called "Code Monkey." If you haven't seen it yet... give it a look. It's perfect for watching on your commute, or when you should be working, or whatever.

Guitar Hero Film Short

2007-06-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

Ahhh... yet another film short inspired by a video game. This time, Guitar Hero.

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Resident Evil 4 (Wii) Rocks - EB Games Sucks Balls

2007-06-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

Did my little video game browsing circuit through Metrotown today. Except today I was looking for something in particular. I was looking for the re-release of Resident Evil 4 for the Wii... which was scheduled to be in stores today.

My first stop was Superstore... nothing. Then, just because of its close proximity, I went to Electronic Boutique, (or "EB Games" as they like to be called since the KFC'd their name a few years back.)

"Have you got Resident Evil 4 in for the Wii?" I asked. I already knew their answer... I don't know why I went in there.

"Did you pre-order it?"

"No... I sure as hell didn't," I said.

"Then for you sir, I'm sorry, I don't have a copy available."

From what I hear, this is now standard practice at EB Games. They advertise a new release, but only ever have enough stock available for those who "pre-ordered," the desired item. I don't know if they have a fee for pre-ordering, since I've never played that little game, but I imagine they make some money of the scam, but if they do, it's basically a way for them to get around the retail prices mandated by the manufacturer. So in other words, it would be a way for them to charge more for a standard $59,99 Wii title than anyone else, without actually having to advertise a higher price.

The sad part is... obviously a tonne of people fall for the little scheme on an ongoing basis, because all of their new releases seem to be reserved on launch day for those who pre-ordered.

For my part... I got a little extra exercise, hiked over to Future Shop, and picked up one of no less than 14 RE4 games sitting unguarded on the rack. No pre-order bullshit... and I even scooted out of the store fast enough to dodge the warranty pitch.

As for the game. It's butter. I turned out the lights, ditched my chair, and let the first hour of the game scare the shit out of me.

The controls are as tight as the reviews say. Unlike the UBI-soft bullshit being ported to the Wii from the GameCube, the controls feel anything but tacked on.

And I never got around to playing the game for the GameCube, so it's all new to me. If you own a Wii, this is a must-have. If you don't own a Wii, and you've never played RE4, then if Twilight Princess wasn't enough to convince you to buy one, this should.

Donkey Kong Walkthrough

2007-06-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure which is worse... that some people, somewhere, at some point in the eighties probably spent money on this video-walkthrough for Nintendo's "Donkey Kong, (produced for the Coleco Vision console,) or that I was able to point out a mistake in it!

source.
original video.

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Wii-Mote Innards

2007-06-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

Great inside look at the Wii-mote's internal components here.

Also the first hint that future voice-utilizing games will come with some sort of a controll-mic attachment a-la nunchuck, rather than a standalone device.

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Wii's Full of VC Games

2007-06-09T12:25:00.001-07:00

The most surprising thing about this story, is that it's the first I've heard so far.

The internal storage space of a Wii is a mere 512 megs. I've been waiting for complaints to surface over that space getting filled with Virtual Console games from the Wii store, but after over 6 months, this is the first report I've read.

Of course, it was less of a complaint, and more of a FAQ on how to offset the Wii's memory shortfalls with SD cards. Of course, to my knowledge, the larges SD card is at 8 gigs capacity so far, and probably costs as much as the Wii itself. The article did however, allude to some USB-based storage peripherals to be released in the future. Nothing concrete as of yet, of course. And undoubtedly, Nintendo is wracking their brains trying to figure out a solution that doesn't allow foreign software to be run on the Wii.

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Old Night Trap Mini-Documentary

2007-06-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

Have been downloading, burning, and archiving Sega CD games all week. Trying to get all 148 official releases compiled, and Jesus Christ, is there ever a deficit of decent games for that system.

For those who were much smarter than I back in the early to mid-nineties, and resisted plunking down $400 bones onto this Genesis add-on, you may not be entirely aware of just how much of a dumping ground this system was for crappy experiments in full-motion-video. (FMV)

FMV, of course, never really took off in the gaming industry, since gamers prefer to play their games than to watch them, and besides some forays into PC gaming, as well as a few failed exploits on the 3D0, and CD-i systems, companies like "Digital Pictures" played and died almost exclusively on the Sega CD.

A few interesting titles did come out, however which played a role in shaping the video game industry. Perhaps none quite so infamously as "Night Trap."

This game provided a few wacky American senators their first fodder for what is now an ongoing debate on Video Game censorship. Though I'm not entirely opposed to a movie-industry style restriction system for video games, what was so funny about the roaring controversy over Night Trap was the sheer harmlessness of the game; by today's standards particularly, but even by the standards of the time in which the game was released.

The following mini-documentary shows a bit of the insanity that dogged the game. The disappointment, of course, is not that the game was unfairly attacked... but rather how no one ever really talked about how much the game actually sucked.

From now until the end of time, solely because of the disproportionate amount of controversy mounted on this steamer, gamers interested in the history of the industry will be forced to play a complete waste of their time, just to get a sense of the beginnings of the video game rating system.

What a waste.

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Sony Attempts to Deny Massive Layoff Connection to Tanking PS3

2007-06-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

Sony executives have denied any connection between their ailing PS3 console, and the massive layoffs in their European and American branches yesterday.

The axe is being blamed on a "need to restructure and streamline," according to Sony's top brass.

So far, the layoffs are confined only to Sony's gaming division, which is the only division posting record losses by the electronics giant.

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Sony Attempts to Bouy Sinking PS3 with Massive Layoffs

2007-06-08T00:46:00.000-07:00

Kotaku has reported massive layoffs in the Sony camp. It appears as though the mucky mucks think they can save their ailing console by running on less steam.

If anything, I'd say they need more help, not less. But I'm not a big rich game console producer, incapable of doing any wrong.

Report of American layoffs.
Report of European layoffs.

2007-06-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Aaron Ekman's Gameboy Advance Rom Collection

Filename

007 - Everything or Nothing.rar
2 Disney Games - Lilo & Stitch 2 + Peter Pan - Return to Neverland.rar
2-in-1 Collection.zip
Ace Combat Advance # GBA.zip
Ace Lightning # GBA.zip
Action Man - Robotatak # GBA.zip
Activision Anthology # GBA.zip
Advance Guardian Heroes # GBA.zip
Advanced Wars # GBA.zip
Advanced Wars 2 - Black Hole Rising # GBA.zip
"Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius vs. Jimmy Negatron, The.rar"
"Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, The - Attack of the Twonkies.rar"
"Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, The - Jet Fusion.rar"
Aero the Acrobat - Rascal Rival Revenge # GBA.zip
Agassi Tennis Generation # GBA.zip
Agressive Inline # GBA.zip
Airforce Delta Storm # GBA.zip
Aladdin # GBA.zip
Alien Hominid # GBA.zip
Alienators - Evolution Continues # GBA.zip
All Grown Up - Express Yourself.rar
All-Star Baseball 2003 feat. Derek Jeter # GBA.zip
All-Star Baseball 2004 feat. Derek Jeter # GBA.zip
Altered Beast - Guardian of the Realms # GBA.zip
Amazing Virtual Sea Monkeys # GBA.zip
American Bass Challenge # GBA.zip
American Idols # GBA.zip
An American Tail - Fievel's Gold Rush # GBA.zip
Animal Snap - Rescue them 2 by 2 # GBA.zip
Animaniacs - Light Camera Action # GBA.zip
Antz - Extreme Racing # GBA.zip
Archer Maclean's 3D Pool.rar
Archer Maclean's Super Dropzone.rar
Army Men - Operation Green # GBA.zip
Army Men Advance # GBA.zip
Army Men Advance - Operation Green # GBA.zip
Army Men Advance 2 - Turf Wars # GBA.zip
Around the World in 80 Days # GBA.zip
Asterix and Obelix - Paf them All # GBA.zip
Asterix and Obelix XXL # GBA.zip
Astro Boy - Omega Factor # GBA.zip
Atari Anniversary Advance # GBA.zip
Atlantis - the Lost Empire # GBA.zip
Atomic Betty # GBA.zip
ATV Quad Power Racing # GBA.zip
Babar to the Rescue.rar
Backtrack # GBA.zip
Backyard Baseball # GBA.zip
Backyard Baseball 2006 # GBA.zip
Backyard Basketball # GBA.zip
Backyard Football # GBA.zip
Backyard Football 2006 # GBA.zip
Backyard Hockey # GBA.zip
Backyard Skateboarding # GBA.zip
Backyard Sports - Baseball 2007.rar
Baldur's Gate - Dark Alliance # GBA.zip
Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever # GBA.zip
Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever 2 # GBA.zip
Banjo Kazooie - Grunty's Revenge # GBA.zip
Banjo Pilot # GBA.zip
Barbie - Groovy Games # GBA.zip
Barbie - Horse Adventures - Blue Ribbon Race # GBA.zip
Barbie - Secret Agent # GBA.zip
Barbie - Secret Agent - Royal Jewels Mission # GBA.zip
Barbie - the Princess and the Pauper # GBA.zip
Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus # GBA.zip
Baseball Advance # GBA.zip
Bat-Man - Rise of Sin Tzu # GBA.zip
Bat-Man - Vengeance # GBA.zip
Bat-Man Begins # GBA.zip
Battle-Bots - Beyond the Battlebox # GBA.zip
Battle-Bots - Design and Destroy # GBA.zip
Berenstain Bears - Spooky Old Tree # GBA.zip
Beyblade G-Revolution # GBA.zip
Beyblade V-Force - Ultimate Blader # GBA.zip
Beyblade V-Force 2 # GBA.zip
Bible Game # GBA.zip
Big Mutha Truckers # GBA.zip
Bionicle Trilogy.rar
Black Belt Challenge # GBA.zip
Blackthorne # GBA.zip
Blades of Thunder # GBA.zip
Blender Bros # GBA.zip
BMX - Trick Racer # GBA.zip
Board Game Classics # GBA.zip
Boktai - the Sun is in Your Hands # GBA.zip
Boktai 2 - Solar Boy Django # GBA.zip
Bomber-Man Max 2 Blue # GBA.zip
Bomber-Man Max 2 Red # GBA.zip
Bomber-Man Tournament # GBA.zip
Bookworm # GBA.zip
Boulder-Dash EX # GBA.zip
Boxing Fever # GBA.zip
Bratz # GBA.zip
Bratz - Rock Angels # GBA.zip
Break Out & Centipede & Warlords # GBA.zip
Breath of Fire # GBA.zip
Breath of Fire 2 # GBA.zip
Britney's Dance Beat # GBA.zip
Broken Sword - the Shadow of the Templars # GBA.zip
Brother Bear # GBA.zip
Brother Bear (U).zip
Bruce Lee - Return of the Legend # GBA.zip
Bubble Bobble - Old and New # GBA.zip
Bubble Pop # GBA.zip
Buffy - the Vampire Slayer # GBA.zip
Bust a Move # GBA.zip
Butt-Ugly Martians - B.K.M. Battles # GBA.zip
Cabela's Big Game Hunter # GBA.zip
Cabela's Big Game Hunter - 2005 Adventures # GBA.zip
Cabela's Big Game Hunter - 2005 Adventures (U).zip
Caesar's Palace Advance # GBA.zip
"Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Memory Game.rar"
Car Battler Joe # GBA.zip
Cardcaptor Sakura (J) # GBA.zip
Care Bears - the Care Quest # GBA.zip
Carrera Power Slide # GBA.zip
Cars.rar
Cartoon Network - Block Party # GBA.zip
Cartoon Network - Speedway # GBA.zip
Casper # GBA.zip
Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow # GBA.zip
Castlevania - Circle of the Moon # GBA.zip
Castlevania - Harmony Of Dissonance # GBA.zip
Castlevania.rar
Castleween # GBA.zip
"Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, The.rar"
Cat-Women # GBA.zip
Catz.rar
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory # GBA.zip
Chessmaster # GBA.zip
Chicken Little.rar
Chicken Shoot # GBA.zip
Chicken Shoot 2.rar
Chronicles of Narnia # GBA.zip
Chu Chu Rocket! # GBA.zip
CIMA - the Enemy # GBA.zip
Cinderella - Magical Dreams.rar
Classic NES - Bomberman # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Castlevania # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Donkey Kong # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Dr. Mario # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Excite Bike # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Ice Climber # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Metroid # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Pac-Man # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Super Mario Bros. # GBA.zip
Classic NES - the Legend of Zelda # GBA.zip
Classic NES - Xevious # GBA.zip
Classic NES Series - Zelda II - The Adventure of Link.rar
Codename - Kids Next Door - Operation S.O.D.A. # GBA.zip
Colin McRae Rally 2 # GBA.zip
Colin McRae Rally.rar
Columns Crown # GBA.zip
Comix Zone # GBA.zip
Connect Four & Perfection & Trouble # GBA.zip
Contra Advance - the Alien Wars EX # GBA.zip
Corvette # GBA.zip
Crash Bandicoot - Fusion # GBA.zip
Crash Bandicoot - Purple Riptos Rampage # GBA.zip
Crash Bandicoot - the Huge Adventure # GBA.zip
Crash Bandicoot - the Wrath of Cortex # GBA.zip
Crash Bandicoot 2 - N-Tranced # GBA.zip
Crash Bandicoot XS # GBA.zip
Crash Nitro Kart # GBA.zip
Crash Superpack - Crash Bandicoot 2 - N-Tranced + Crash Nitro Kart.rar
Crazy Chase # GBA.zip
Crazy Frog Racer # GBA.zip
Crazy Taxi - Catch a Ride # GBA.zip
Creatures # GBA.zip
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon # GBA.zip
Crushed Baseball # GBA.zip
Crusin' Velocity # GBA.zip
CT Special Forces # GBA.zip
CT Special Forces 2 - Back to Hell # GBA.zip
CT Special Forces 3 - Bio-Terror # GBA.zip
Cubix - Robots for Everyone - Clash 'n Bash # GBA.zip
Curious George # GBA.zip
Danny Phantom - the Ultimate Enemy # GBA.zip
Daredevil # GBA.zip
Darius R # GBA.zip
Dark Arena # GBA.zip
Dave Mirra - Freestyle BMX 2 # GBA.zip
Dave Mirra - Freestyle BMX 3 # GBA.zip
David Beckham Soccer # GBA.zip
Davis Cup # GBA.zip
Dead to Rights # GBA.zip
Deadly Skies # GBA.zip
Defender # GBA.zip
Defender - For All Mankind.rar
Defender of the Crown # GBA.zip
Demikids - Dark Version # GBA.zip
Demikids - Light Version # GBA.zip
Demon Driver - Time to Burn Rubber # GBA.zip
Denki Blocks # GBA.zip
Desert Strike Advance # GBA.zip
Dexter's Laboratory - Chess Challenge # GBA.zip
Dexter's Laboratory - Deesaster Strikes # GBA.zip
Digimon Battle Spirit # GBA.zip
Digimon Battle Spirit 2 - Rising Sun # GBA.zip
Digimon Racing # GBA.zip
Dinotopia - the Timestone Pirates # GBA.zip
Disney Princess # GBA.zip
Disney Sports - Basketball # GBA.zip
Disney Sports - Football # GBA.zip
Disney Sports - Motocross # GBA.zip
Disney Sports - Skateboarding # GBA.zip
Disney Sports - Snowboarding # GBA.zip
Disney Sports - Soccer # GBA.zip
Disney's Cinderella - Magical Dreams # GBA.zip
Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure # GBA.zip
Disney's Party # GBA.zip
DK - King of Swing.rar
Dog Trainer.rar
Dogz # GBA.zip
Dokapon - Monster Hunter # GBA.zip
Dokapon.rar
Donald Duck Advance # GBA.zip
Donkey Kong - King of Swing # GBA.zip
Donkey Kong Country # GBA.zip
Donkey Kong Country 2.rar
Donkey Kong Country 3 # GBA.zip
Doom # GBA.zip
Doom 2 # GBA.zip
Dora the Explorer - Super Spies # GBA.zip
Dora the Explorer - Super Star Adventures # GBA.zip
Dora the Explorer - the Search for Pirate Pig's Treasure # GBA.zip
Double Dragon Advance # GBA.zip
Downforce # GBA.zip
Dr. Mario & Puzzle League # GBA.zip
Dr. Muto # GBA.zip
Dr. Seuss - Green Eggs and Ham # GBA.zip
Dr. Seuss - the Cat in the Hat # GBA.zip
Dr. Sudoku.rar
Dragon Ball Z - Supersonic Warriors (U).zip
Dragon Tales - Dragon Adventures # GBA.zip
Dragon's Rock.rar
Dragonball - Advanced Adventure # GBA.zip
Dragonball GT - Transformation # GBA.zip
Dragonball Z - Buu's Fury # GBA.zip
Dragonball Z - Collectable Card Game # GBA.zip
Dragonball Z - Supersonic Warriors # GBA.zip
Dragonball Z - Taiketsu # GBA.zip
Dragonball Z - the Legacy of Goku # GBA.zip
Dragonball Z - the Legacy of Goku 2 # GBA.zip
Drake & Josh (U)(Rising Sun).zip
Drill Dozer # GBA.zip
Driv3r # GBA.zip
Driven # GBA.zip
Driver 2 Advance # GBA.zip
Drome Racers.rar
Droopy's Tennis Open # GBA.zip
Dual Blades # GBA.zip
Duel Masters - Kaijudo Showdown # GBA.zip
Duel Masters - Sempai Legends # GBA.zip
Duel Masters - Shadow of the Code # GBA.zip
Duke Nukem Advanced # GBA.zip
Dungeons and Dragons - Eye of the Beholder # GBA.zip
Dynasty Warriors Advance # GBA.zip
E.T. - the Extra Terrestrial # GBA.zip
Earthworm Jim # GBA.zip
Earthworm Jim 2 # GBA.zip
Ecks vs. Sever 1&2.rar
"Ed, Edd 'n Eddy - Jawbreakers! # GBA.zip"
"Ed, Edd n Eddy - the Mis-Edventures # GBA.zip"
Egg-Mania # GBA.zip
Elf - the Movie # GBA.zip
Elf Bowling 1 & 2 # GBA.zip
ESPN - Final Round Golf # GBA.zip
ESPN - Great Outdoor Games - Bass Tournament # GBA.zip
ESPN - X-Games - Skateboarding # GBA.zip
ESPN - X-Winter Games - Snowboarding # GBA.zip
ESPN Great Outdoor Games - Bass 2002 (U).zip
ESPN Great Outdoor Games - Bass 2002.rar
ESPN International Winter Sports # GBA.zip
ESPN International Winter Sports 2002.rar
ESPN Winter X-Games Snowboarding 2.rar
ESPN Winter X-Games Snowboarding 2002.rar
European Super League # GBA.zip
Ever Girl # GBA.zip
Extreme Ghostbusters - Code Ecto1 # GBA.zip
Extreme Skate Adventure.rar
F-14 Tomcat # GBA.zip
F-Zero - Maximum Velocity # GBA.zip
F-Zero 2 - GP Legend # GBA.zip
F1 2002 # GBA.zip
FA 18F Super Hornet # GBA.zip
Fairly Odd Parents - Breakin' da Rules # GBA.zip
Fairly Odd Parents - Enter the Cleft # GBA.zip
Fairly Odd parents - Shadow Showdown # GBA.zip
Fairly Odd Parents! - Clash With the Anti-World # GBA.zip
Fantastic 4 # GBA.zip
Fantastic 4 - Flame On # GBA.zip
Fear Factor - Unleashed # GBA.zip
FIFA 2003 # GBA.zip
FIFA 2004 # GBA.zip
FIFA 2005 # GBA.zip
Fifa Football 2006 # GBA.zip
Fightbox # GBA.zip
FILA Decathlon # GBA.zip
Final Fantasy - Tactics Advanced # GBA.zip
Final Fantasy 1 and 2 - Dawn of Souls # GBA.zip
Final Fantasy 4 Advance # GBA.zip
Final Fantasy Legend III (Sa-Ga 3) (U) [h3].rar
Final Fantasy V Advance.zip
Final Fantasy VI (U).rar
Final Fight One # GBA.zip
Finding Nemo # GBA.zip
Finding Nemo - the Continuing Adventures # GBA.zip
Fire Emblem # GBA.zip
Fire Emblem - the Sacred Stones # GBA.zip
Fire Pro Wrestling # GBA.zip
Fire Pro Wrestling 2 # GBA.zip
Flintstones - Big Trouble in Bedrock # GBA.zip
Ford Racing 3 # GBA.zip
Fortress # GBA.zip
Franklin the Turtle # GBA.zip
Franklins Great Adventure # GBA.zip
Freekstyle # GBA.zip
Freestyle Scooter # GBA.zip
Frogger Advance - the Great Quest # GBA.zip
Frogger's Adventure - Temple of the Frog # GBA.zip
Frogger's Adventure 2 - the Lost Wand # GBA.zip
Frogger's Journey - the Forgotten Relic # GBA.zip
Gadget Racers # GBA.zip
Galidor - Defenders of the Outer Dimension # GBA.zip
Game & Watch Gallery 4.rar
Game & Watch Gallery Advance # GBA.zip
Games Explosion! (U).rar
Garfield - the Search for Pooky # GBA.zip
Garfield and His Nine Lives.rar
Gauntlet - Dark Legacy # GBA.zip
Gauntlet Rampart # GBA.zip
GBA.txt
GBAlist.txt
Gekido Advance - Kintaro's Revenge # GBA.zip
Gem Smashers # GBA.zip
Ghouls 'n Ghosts # GBA.zip
Global Star - Sudoku Fever.rar
Glory Days - Essence of a War # GBA.zip
Go! Go! Beckham! - Adventure on Soccer Island # GBA.zip
Godzilla - Domination # GBA.zip
Golden Nugget Casino # GBA.zip
Golden Sun # GBA.zip
Golden Sun 2 - the Lost Age # GBA.zip
Gradius Advance # GBA.zip
Gradius Advance (Trained) # GBA.GBA.zip
Gradius Galaxies.rar
Grand Theft Auto Advance # GBA.zip
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.rar
Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball MAXd.rar
Gremlins - Stripe vs. Gizmo # GBA.zip
GT Advance - Championship Racing # GBA.zip
GT Advance 2 - Rally Racing # GBA.zip
GT Advance 3 - Pro Concept Racing # GBA.zip
GT Championship.rar
Guilty Gear X - Advance Edition # GBA.zip
Gumby vs. the Astrobots # GBA.zip
Gundam Seed - Battle Assault # GBA.zip
Gunstar Future Heroes.rar
Gunstar Super Heroes # GBA.zip
Hamtaro - Ham Ham Games # GBA.zip
Hamtaro - Ham Ham Heartbreak # GBA.zip
Hamtaro - Rainbow Rescue # GBA.zip
Hardcore Pinball # GBA.zip
Hardcore Pool.zip
Harry Potter - Quidditch World Cup # GBA.zip
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets # GBA.zip
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire # GBA.zip
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban # GBA.zip
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone # GBA.zip
Harvest Moon - Friends of Mineral Town # GBA.zip
Harvest Moon - More Friends of Mineral Town # GBA.zip
He-Man and the Power of Grayskull # GBA.zip
Heidi - the Game # GBA.zip
Hello Kitty - Happy Party Pals # GBA.zip
Herbie - Fully Loaded # GBA.zip
Hey Arnold - the Movie # GBA.zip
Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi - Kaznapped!.zip
High Heat - Major League Baseball 2002 # GBA.zip
High Heat Major League Baseball 2003 # GBA.zip
Hobbit # GBA.zip
Home on the Range # GBA.zip
Horse and Pony - Let's Ride 2 # GBA.zip
Hot Potato # GBA.zip
Hot Wheels - Burnin' Rubber # GBA.zip
Hot Wheels - Stunt Track Challenge # GBA.zip
Hot Wheels - Velocity X # GBA.zip
Hot Wheels - World Race # GBA.zip
Hot Wheels Advance # GBA.zip
Hugo - Bukkazoom! # GBA.zip
Hugo - the Evil Mirror # GBA.zip
I Spy Challenger # GBA.zip
Ice Age # GBA.zip
Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown.zip
Ice Nine # GBA.zip
IK Plus - the Ultimate Martial Arts Simulation # GBA.zip
Incredible Hulk # GBA.zip
Incredibles # GBA.zip
Incredibles - Rise of the Underminer # GBA.zip
Inspector Gadget - Advanced Mission # GBA.zip
Inspector Gadget Racing # GBA.zip
International Karate Advanced # GBA.zip
International Karate Plus # GBA.zip
International Superstar Soccer Advance # GBA.zip
Invader # GBA.zip
Invincible Iron Man # GBA.zip
Iridion 3D # GBA.zip
Iridion 3D 2 # GBA.zip
Its Mr Pants! # GBA.zip
Jackie Chan Adventures - Legend of the Dark Hand # GBA.zip
James Bond 007 - Everything or Nothing # GBA.zip
James Pond - Codename Robocod # GBA.zip
Jazz Jack-Rabbit # GBA.zip
Jet Grind Radio # GBA.zip
Jet Set Radio # GBA.zip
Jimmy Neutron - Attack of the Twonkies # GBA.zip
Jimmy Neutron - Boy Genius # GBA.zip
Jimmy Neutron - Jet Fusion # GBA.zip
Jimmy Neutron vs. Jimmy Negatron # GBA.zip
Jonny Moseley - Mad Trix # GBA.zip
Juka and the Monophonic Menace.zip
Jungle Book # GBA.zip
Jungle Book 2 # GBA.zip
Jurassic park 3 - Dino Attack # GBA.zip
Jurassic Park 3 - Island Attack # GBA.zip
Jurassic Park 3 - Park Builder # GBA.zip
Jurassic Park 3 - the DNA Factor # GBA.zip
Justice League - Chronicles # GBA.zip
Justice League - Injustice for All # GBA.zip
Kao the Kangaroo # GBA.zip
Karnaaj Rally # GBA.zip
Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer # GBA.zip
Kid's Cards # GBA.zip
Kien - Discover the Secret of Kien # GBA.zip
Kill-Switch # GBA.zip
Killer 3D Pool # GBA.zip
Kim Possible # GBA.zip
Kim Possible - Revenge of Monkey Fist # GBA.zip
Kim Possible 2 - Drakken's Demise # GBA.zip
Kim Possible 3 - Team Possible # GBA.zip
King Kong # GBA.zip
King Kong - King of Atlantis # GBA.zip
King of Fighters EX - Neo Blood # GBA.zip
King of Fighters EX 2 - Howling Blood # GBA.zip
Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories # GBA.zip
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror # GBA.zip
Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland # GBA.zip
Klonoa - Empire of Dreams # GBA.zip
Klonoa 2 - Dream Champ Tournament # GBA.zip
Knights' Kingdom.zip
Koala Brothers # GBA.zip
Konami Collectors Series - Arcade Advanced # GBA.zip
Konami GB Collection vol.1 # GBA.zip
Konami GB Collection vol.3 # GBA.zip
Konami's Krazy Racers # GBA.zip
Kong - the Animated Series # GBA.zip
Krazy Racers # GBA.zip
Kuru Kuru Kururin # GBA.zip
Lady Sia # GBA.zip
Land before Time # GBA.zip
"Land Before Time, The - Into the Mysterious Beyond.zip"
"Legend of Zelda, The - A Link to the Past & Four Swords (U).zip"
"Legend of Zelda, The - A Link to the Past & Four Swords.zip"
Legends of Wrestling 2 # GBA.zip
LEGO - Knight's Kingdom # GBA.zip
LEGO - Bionicle # GBA.zip
LEGO - Bionicle - Matoran Adventures # GBA.zip
LEGO - Bionicle - Maze of Shadows # GBA.zip
LEGO - Bionicle - the Game # GBA.zip
LEGO - Drome Racers # GBA.zip
LEGO - Football Mania # GBA.zip
LEGO - Racers 2 # GBA.zip
LEGO - Soccer Mania # GBA.zip
LEGO - Star Wars - the Video Game # GBA.zip
LEGO Island - Xtreme Stunts # GBA.zip
LEGO Island 2 # GBA.zip
LEGO Island 2 - The Brickster's Revenge (U) (M2).zip
Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events # GBA.zip
Let's Ride! - Dreamer.zip
Let's Ride! - Sunshine Stables.zip
"Life, Yahtzee, Payday.zip"
Lilo and Stitch # GBA.zip
Lilo and Stitch 2 - Hamsterveil Havoc # GBA.zip
Lion King # GBA.zip
Little League Baseball 2002 # GBA.zip
Lizzie McGuire - On the Go! # GBA.zip
Lizzie McGuire 2 - Lizzie Diaries # GBA.zip
Lizzie McGuire 3 - Home-Coming Havoc # GBA.zip
Looney Tunes - Back in Action # GBA.zip
Lord of the Rings - the Fellowship of the Ring # GBA.zip
Lord of the Rings - the Third Age # GBA.zip
Lord of the Rings 2 - the Two Towers # GBA.zip
Lord of the Rings 3 - Return of the King # GBA.zip
Lost Vikings # GBA.zip
Love Hina Advance # GBA.zip
Lucky Luke - Wanted # GBA.zip
Lufia - the Ruins of Lore # GBA.zip
Lunar Legend # GBA.zip
M&M's Blast! # GBA.zip
Madagascar # GBA.zip
Madagascar - Operation Penguin # GBA.zip
Madden 2002 # GBA.zip
Madden 2003 # GBA.zip
Madden 2004 # GBA.zip
Madden 2005 # GBA.zip
Madden NFL 2006 # GBA.zip
Magical Quest 2 starring Mickey and Minnie Mouse # GBA.zip
Magical Quest 3 starring Mickey and Minnie Mouse # GBA.zip
Magical Quest starring Mickey and Minnie Mouse # GBA.zip
Maniac Racers Advance # GBA.zip
Manic Miner # GBA.zip
Marble Madness & Klax # GBA.zip
Mario Advanced # GBA.zip
Mario Advanced 2 # GBA.zip
Mario Advanced 3 # GBA.zip
Mario Advanced 4 # GBA.zip
Mario and Luigi - Superstar Saga # GBA.zip
Mario Ball # GBA.zip
Mario Golf - Advance Tour # GBA.zip
Mario Kart - Super Circuit # GBA.zip
Mario Party Advance # GBA.zip
Mario Pinball Land # GBA.zip
Mario Power Tennis.zip
Mario vs. Donkey Kong # GBA.zip
Mary-Kate and Ashley - Girls Night Out # GBA.zip
Mary-Kate and Ashley - Sweet 16 - Licensed to Drive # GBA.zip
Masters of the Universe He-Man - Power of Grayskull.zip
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX # GBA.zip
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 # GBA.zip
Matchbox - Cross Town Heroes # GBA.zip
Max Payne - the Fall of Max Payne # GBA.zip
Maya the Bee - Sweet Gold # GBA.zip
Maya the Bee - the Great Adventure # GBA.zip
Mech Platoon # GBA.zip
Medabots AX - Metabee Version # GBA.zip
Medabots AX - Rokusho Version # GBA.zip
Medabots RPG - Metabee Version # GBA.zip
Medabots RPG - Rokusho Version # GBA.zip
Medal of Honor - Infiltrator # GBA.zip
Medal of Honor - Underground # GBA.zip
Mega-Man - Battle Chip Challenge # GBA.zip
Mega-Man - Zero # GBA.zip
Mega-Man - Zero 2 # GBA.zip
Mega-Man - Zero 3 # GBA.zip
Mega-Man - Zero 4 # GBA.zip
Mega-Man and Bass # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network 2 # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network 3 Blue # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network 3 White # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network 4 - Blue Moon # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network 4 - Red Sun # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network 5 - Team Colonel # GBA.zip
Mega-Man Battle Network 5 - Team Proto-Man # GBA.zip
Megaman Battle Chip Challenge (U).zip
Men in Black - the Series # GBA.zip
Metal Max 2 Kai (J) (v1.1).zip
Metal Slug Advance # GBA.zip
Metroid Fusion # GBA.zip
Metroid Zero Mission # GBA.zip
Micro Machines # GBA.zip
Midnight Club Street-Racing GBA.zip
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits # GBA.zip
Mighty Beanz - Pocket Puzzles # GBA.zip
Mike Tyson - Boxing # GBA.zip
Millipede- Super Breakou - Lunar Lander # GBA.zip
Minority Report - Everybody Runs # GBA.zip
Mission Impossible - Operation Surma # GBA.zip
MLB SlugFest 2004 # GBA.zip
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed - Battle Assault # GBA.zip
Monkey Ball Jr. # GBA.zip
Monopoly # GBA.zip
Monster Bass Fishing # GBA.zip
Monster Force # GBA.zip
Monster Jam - Maximum Destruction # GBA.zip
Monster Rancher Advance # GBA.zip
Monster Rancher Advance 2 # GBA.zip
Monster Truck Madness # GBA.zip
Monster Trucks # GBA.zip
Monsters Inc. # GBA.zip
Moorhen 3 - Chicken Chase # GBA.zip
Mortal Kombat - Deadly Alliance # GBA.zip
Mortal Kombat - Tournament Edition # GBA.zip
Mortal Kombat Advance # GBA.zip
Moto GP & GT Advance 3 - Double Pack # GBA.zip
Motocross Maniacs Advance # GBA.zip
Motoracer Advance # GBA.zip
Mr. Driller 2 # GBA.zip
Mr. Nutz # GBA.zip
Ms. Pac-Man - Maze Madness # GBA.zip
Mucha Lucha - Mascaritas of the Lost Code # GBA.zip
Mummy # GBA.zip
Muppet Pinball Mayhem # GBA.zip
Muppets - on With the Show # GBA.zip
MX 2K2 Ricky Carmichael # GBA.zip
My Pet Hotel # GBA.zip
Namco Museum # GBA.zip
Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary # GBA.zip
Nancy Drew - Message in a Haunted Mansion # GBA.zip
Naruto - Ninja Council.zip
NASCAR Heat 2002 # GBA.zip
NBA Jam 2002.zip
Need for Speed - Most Wanted # GBA.zip
Need for Speed - Porsche Unleashed # GBA.zip
Need for Speed - Underground # GBA.zip
Need for Speed - Underground 2 # GBA.zip
Next Generation Tennis # GBA.zip
NFL Blitz 20-03 (U).zip
NFL Blitz 2002 # GBA.zip
NFL Blitz 2003 # GBA.zip
NHL 2002 # GBA.zip
NHL Hitz 2003 # GBA.zip
Nicktoons - Freeze Frame Frenzy # GBA.zip
Nicktoons Racing # GBA.zip
Nicktoons Unite # GBA.zip
NightFire.zip
Nightmare before Christmas - the Pumpkin King # GBA.zip
Ninja Cop # GBA.zip
Ninja Five-0 # GBA.zip
No Rules - Get Phat # GBA.zip
Oddworld - Munch's Oddysee # GBA.zip
One Piece.zip
Onimusha Tactics # GBA.zip
Onimusha Tactics (U).zip
Operation Armored Liberty # GBA.zip
Operation Armored Liberty (U).zip
Outback Adventures # GBA.zip
Over the Hedge.zip
Ozzy and Drix # GBA.zip
Pac-Man Collection # GBA.zip
Pac-Man Pinball Advance # GBA.zip
Pac-Man World # GBA.zip
Pac-Man World 2 # GBA.zip
PaperBoy & RampAge # GBA.zip
Paws & Claws - Pet Resort.zip
Payback # GBA.zip
Penny Racers # GBA.zip
Personal Organizer PDA # GBA.zip
Peter Pan - Return to Neverland # GBA.zip
Peter Pan - the Motion Picture Event # GBA.zip
Pferd & Pony - Mein Pferdehof.zip
Phalanx - the Enforce Fighter A-144 # GBA.zip
Phantasy Star Collection # GBA.zip
Piglet's Big Game # GBA.zip
Pinball Advance # GBA.zip
Pinball Challenge Deluxe # GBA.zip
Pinball of the Dead # GBA.zip
Pinball Tycoon # GBA.zip
Pink Panther - Pinkadelic Pursuit # GBA.zip
Pinky and the Brain - the Master Plan # GBA.zip
Pinobee - Wings of Adventure # GBA.zip
Pirates of the Caribbean # GBA.zip
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest.zip
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl.zip
Pitfall - the Lost Expedition # GBA.zip
Pitfall - The Lost Expedition.gba
Pitfall - the Mayan Adventure # GBA.zip
Planet Monsters # GBA.zip
Planet of the Apes # GBA.zip
Pocket Dogs # GBA.zip
Pocket Music # GBA.zip
Pocky and Rocky with Becky # GBA.zip
Pokemon - Fire Red # GBA.zip
Pokemon - Leaf Green # GBA.zip
Pokemon Emerald # GBA.zip
Pokemon Pinball - Ruby and Sapphire # GBA.zip
Pokemon Ruby # GBA.zip
Pokemon Sapphire # GBA.zip
Polar Express # GBA.zip
Polarium Advance.zip
Polly Pocket - Super Splash Island # GBA.zip
Pong Fighter v1.2 (PD).zip
"Pong, Asteroids, Yars' Revenge.zip"
Pop Idol # GBA.zip
Popeye - Rush for Spinach # GBA.zip
Power Rangers - Dino-Thunder # GBA.zip
Power Rangers - Ninja Storm # GBA.zip
Power Rangers - Time-Force # GBA.zip
Power Rangers SPD # GBA.zip
Power-Puff Girls - Him and Seek # GBA.zip
Power-Puff Girls - Mojo Jojo a Go Go # GBA.zip
Prehistorik Man # GBA.zip
Premier Action Soccer.gba
Premier League Manager # GBA.zip
Premier Manager 2003-2004 # GBA.zip
Premier Manager 2004-2005 # GBA.zip
Premier Manager 2005 - 2006 # GBA.zip
Prince of Persia - Sands of Time # GBA.zip
Pro Beach Soccer # GBA.zip
Pro Tennis WTA Tour # GBA.zip
Proud Family # GBA.zip
Punch King - Arcade Boxing # GBA.zip
Puyo Pop Fever.zip
Puyo Pop.zip
Quad Desert Fury # GBA.zip
R-Type 3 # GBA.zip
Racing Fever.zip
Racing Gears Advance # GBA.zip
Rainbow Six - Rogue Spear # GBA.zip
Rampage - Puzzle Attack # GBA.zip
Rapala - Pro Fishing # GBA.zip
Rave Master - Special Attack Force # GBA.zip
Ray-Man - 10th Anniversary # GBA.zip
Ray-Man - Hoodlums Revenge # GBA.zip
Ray-Man 3 - Hoodlum Havoc GBA.zip
Ray-Man Advance # GBA.zip
Razor - Freestyle Scooter # GBA.zip
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - Round 2 # GBA.zip
Rebel Star - Tactical Command # GBA.zip
Reign of Fire # GBA.zip
Rescue Heroes - Billy Blazes! # GBA.zip
Revenge of Shinobi # GBA.zip
Revenge of the Smurfs # GBA.zip
Ripping Friends # GBA.zip
Risk & BattleShip & Clue # GBA.zip
River City Ransom EX # GBA.zip
Riviera - the Promised Land # GBA.zip
Road Rash - Jailbreak # GBA.zip
Robopon 2 - Cross Version # GBA.zip
Robopon 2 - Ring Version # GBA.zip
Robot Wars - Advanced Destruction # GBA.zip
Robot Wars - Extreme Destruction # GBA.zip
Robotech - the Macross Saga # GBA.zip
Robots # GBA.zip
Rock n' Roll Racing # GBA.zip
Rocket Power - Beach Bandits # GBA.zip
Rocket Power - Dream Scheme # GBA.zip
Rocket Power - Zero Gravity Zone # GBA.zip
Rocky # GBA.zip
Roland Garros 2002 - Next Generation Tennis # GBA.zip
Rugrats - All Grown Up # GBA.zip
Rugrats - Castle Capers # GBA.zip
Rugrats - Go Wild # GBA.zip
Rugrats - I Gotta go Party # GBA.zip
Sabrewulf # GBA.zip
Sabrina the Teenage Witch - Potion Commotion # GBA.zip
Salt Lake 2002 # GBA.zip
Samurai Jack - the Amulet of Time # GBA.zip
Santa Claus Jr. # GBA.zip
Santa Claus Saves the Earth # GBA.zip
Scooby Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed # GBA.zip
Scooby-Doo - the Motion Picture # GBA.zip
Scooby-Doo - Unmasked # GBA.zip
Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase # GBA.zip
Scooby-Doo! - Mystery Mayhem # GBA.zip
Scorpion King - Sword Of Osiris # GBA.zip
Scrabble Blast # GBA.zip
Scrabble Scramble (E) (M6).zip
SD Gundam Force # GBA.zip
Sea Trader - Rise of Taipan # GBA.zip
Secret Agent Barbie - Royal Jewels Mission # GBA.zip
Sega Arcade Gallery # GBA.zip
Sega Rally Championship # GBA.zip
Sega Smash Pack # GBA.zip
Serious Sam Advance # GBA.zip
Shaman King - Legacy of the Spirits - Soaring Hawk # GBA.zip
Shaman King - Legacy of the Spirits - Sprinting Wolf # GBA.zip
Shaman King - Master of Spirits # GBA.zip
Shaman King - Master Of Spirits 2 # GBA.zip
Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures # GBA.zip
Shark Tale # GBA.zip
Shark Tale (U).zip
Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder # GBA.zip
Sheep # GBA.zip
Shifting Gears - Road Trip # GBA.zip
Shining Force - Resurrection of the Dark Dragon # GBA.zip
Shining Soul # GBA.zip
Shining Soul 2 # GBA.zip
Shonen Jump's One Piece # GBA.zip
Shrek - Hassle at the Castle # GBA.zip
Shrek - Reekin' Havoc # GBA.zip
Shrek - Swamp Kart # GBA.zip
Shrek 2 # GBA.zip
Shrek 2 - Beg for Mercy # GBA.zip
Shrek S- uper Slam # GBA.zip
Sigma Star Saga # GBA.zip
Silent Scope # GBA.zip
Sim City 2000 # GBA.zip
Simpsons - Road Rage # GBA.zip
Sims - Bustin' Out # GBA.zip
Sims 2 # GBA.zip
Sitting Ducks # GBA.zip
Sky Dancers # GBA.zip
Smashing Drive # GBA.zip
Smuggler's Run # GBA.zip
"Smurfs, The - The Revenge of the Smurfs.zip"
Snood # GBA.zip
Snood 2 - On Vacation # GBA.zip
Soccer Kid # GBA.zip
Sonic Advance # GBA.zip
Sonic Advance 2 # GBA.zip
Sonic Advance 3 # GBA.zip
Sonic Advance 3 (U) (M6).zip
Sonic Battle # GBA.zip
Sonic Pinball Party # GBA.zip
Sorry & Aggravation & Scrabble Junior # GBA.zip
Sound of Thunder # GBA.zip
Space Channel 5 - Ulala's Cosmic Attack # GBA.zip
Space Invaders # GBA.zip
Speedball 2 - Brutal Deluxe # GBA.zip
Spider-Man - Mysterio's Menace # GBA.zip
Spider-Man - the Movie # GBA.zip
Spider-Man 2 # GBA.zip
Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron # GBA.zip
Spirit Detective Yu Yu Hakusho # GBA.zip
Spirits and Spells # GBA.zip
Splinter Cell # GBA.zip
Splinter Cell 2 - Pandora Tomorrow # GBA.zip
SpongeBob Squarepants - Battle for Bikini Bottom # GBA.zip
SpongeBob Squarepants - Lights Camera Action # GBA.zip
SpongeBob SquarePants - Revenge of the Flying Dutchman # GBA.zip
SpongeBob Squarepants - Super-Sponge # GBA.zip
SpongeBob Squarepants - the Movie # GBA.zip
Spongebob Squarepants and Friends Unite! # GBA.zip
Sports Illustrated for Kids - Baseball # GBA.zip
Sports Illustrated for Kids - Football # GBA.zip
Spy Hunter # GBA.zip
Spy Hunter - Super Sprint # GBA.zip
Spy Kids 3D - Game Over # GBA.zip
Spy Kids Challenger # GBA.zip
Spy Muppets - License to Croak # GBA.zip
Spy vs Spy (U).zip
Spyro - Season of Ice # GBA.zip
Spyro 2 - Season of Flame # GBA.zip
Spyro 3 - Attack of the Rhynocs # GBA.zip
Spyro Fusion # GBA.zip
Spyro Orange - the Cortex Conspiracy # GBA.zip
Spyro's Adventures # GBA.zip
SSX 3 # GBA.zip
SSX 3 (UE).zip
SSX Tricky # GBA.zip
Stadium Games # GBA.zip
Star Wars - Attack of the Clones # GBA.zip
Star Wars - Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith # GBA.zip
Star Wars - Flight of the Falcon # GBA.zip
Star Wars - Jedi Power Battles # GBA.zip
Star Wars - the New Droid Army # GBA.zip
Star Wars Trilogy - Apprentice of the Force # GBA.zip
Star X # GBA.zip
Starsky and Hutch # GBA.zip
Steel Empire # GBA.zip
Steven Gerrard's Total Soccer 2002 # GBA.zip
Strawberry Short-Cake - Ice Cream Island Riding Camp # GBA.zip
Strawberry Shortcake - Summertime Adventure # GBA.zip
Street Jam Basketball # GBA.zip
Street Racing Syndicate.zip
Street-Fighter 2 - Turbo Revival # GBA.zip
Street-Fighter Alpha 3 # GBA.zip
Strike Force Hydra # GBA.zip
Stuart Little 2 # GBA.zip
Stunt-Man # GBA.zip
Sum of all Fears # GBA.zip
Super Army War # GBA.zip
Super Black Bass Advance # GBA.zip
Super Bubble Pop # GBA.zip
Super Bust a Move # GBA.zip
Super Collapse 2 # GBA.zip
Super Dodgeball Advance # GBA.zip
Super Dropzone # GBA.zip
Super Duper Sumos # GBA.zip
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts # GBA.zip
Super Hornet FA 18F.zip
Super Mario Advance 2 - Super Mario World.zip
Super Mario Advance 3 - Yoshi's Island.zip
Super Mario Advance 4 - Super Mario Bros. 3.zip
Super Mario Advance.zip
Super Mario Ball.zip
Super Monkey Ball Jr.zip
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 # GBA.zip
Super Street Fighter II Turbo - Revival.zip
Superman - Countdown to Apokolips # GBA.zip
Sword of Mana # GBA.zip
Tactics Ogre - the Knight of Lodis # GBA.zip
Tak - the Great JuJu Challenge # GBA.zip
Tak 2 - the Staff of Dreams # GBA.zip
Tak and the Power of Juju # GBA.zip
Tales of Phantasia # GBA.zip
Tang Tang # GBA.zip
Tarzan - Return to the Jungle # GBA.zip
Teen Titans.zip
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles # GBA.zip
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - Battle Nexus # GBA.zip
Tekken Advanced # GBA.zip
Ten Pin Alley 2 # GBA.zip
Tennis Masters Series 2003 # GBA.zip
Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines # GBA.zip
Tetris Worlds # GBA.zip
Texas Hold 'Em - Poker # GBA.zip
TG Rally # GBA.zip
That's so Raven # GBA.zip
That's so Raven 2 - Supernatural Style # GBA.zip
Three Stooges # GBA.zip
Thunder Alley # GBA.zip
Thunderbirds - International Rescue # GBA.zip
Thunderbirds.zip
Tiger Woods - PGA Tour Golf # GBA.zip
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004.zip
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - The Pumpkin King.zip
Tiny Toon Adventures - Buster's Bad Dream # GBA.zip
Tiny Toon Adventures - Scary Dreams.zip
Tiny Toones - Wacky Stackers # GBA.zip
TOCA World Touring Cars.zip
Tokyo Xtreme Racer Advance # GBA.zip
Tom and Jerry - the Magic Ring # GBA.zip
Tom and Jerry in Infurnal Escape # GBA.zip
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six - Rogue Spear.zip
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow.zip
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.zip
Tomb-Raider - the Prophecy # GBA.zip
Tony Hawk's American Skate Land # GBA.zip
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 # GBA.zip
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 # GBA.zip
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 # GBA.zip
Tony Hawk's Underground # GBA.zip
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 # GBA.zip
Tootuff - Gagmachine # GBA.zip
Top Gear GT Championship.zip
Top Gear Rally.zip
Top Gun - Combat Zones.zip
Top Gun - Firestorm Advance # GBA.zip
Top Spin 2.zip
Total Soccer # GBA.zip
Total Soccer Manager # GBA.zip
Totally Spies # GBA.zip
"Tower SP, The.zip"
Treasure Planet # GBA.zip
Tringo.zip
Trollz - Hair Affair! # GBA.zip
Tron2.0 Killer App # GBA.zip
Turbo Turtle Adventure # GBA.zip
Turok Evolution # GBA.zip
Tweety and the Magic Gems # GBA.zip
Ty 3 - Night of the Quinkan # GBA.zip
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2 - Bush Rescue # GBA.zip
Ultimate Arcade Games # GBA.zip
Ultimate Beach Soccer # GBA.zip
Ultimate Brain Games # GBA.zip
Ultimate Card Games # GBA.zip
Ultimate Muscle - the Path of the Superhero # GBA.zip
Ultimate Puzzle Games # GBA.zip
Ultimate Spider-Man # GBA.zip
Ultimate Winter Games # GBA.zip
Uno Freefall (U)(Sir VG).zip
Urban Yeti # GBA.zip
"Urbz, The - Sims in the City.zip"
V-Rally 3 # GBA.zip
V.I.P. # GBA.zip
van Helsing # GBA.zip
Virtua Tennis # GBA.zip
Virtual Kasparov # GBA.zip
VisualBoyAdvance-1.7.2.zip
W.i.t.c.h..gba
Wade Hixton's Counter Punch # GBA.zip
Wakeboarding Unleashed # GBA.zip
Wario Ware Inc. # GBA.zip
Wario Ware Twisted # GBA.zip
Wario-Land 4 # GBA.zip
Whac a Mole # GBA.zip
Who wants to be a Millionaire # GBA.zip
Who wants to be a Millionaire - 2nd Edition # GBA.zip
Wild Thornberrys - Chimp Chase # GBA.zip
Wild Thornberrys - the Movie # GBA.zip
"Wild, The.zip"
Win-X Club # GBA.zip
Wing Commander Prophecy # GBA.zip
Wings # GBA.zip
Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure # GBA.zip
Winning Eleven - World Soccer # GBA.zip
Winter Sports # GBA.zip
Witch # GBA.zip
Wolfenstein 3D # GBA.zip
Woody Woodpecker in Crazy Castle 5 # GBA.zip
World Championship Poker # GBA.zip
World Poker Tour # GBA.zip
World Tennis Stars # GBA.zip
Worms - World Party # GBA.zip
Worms Blast # GBA.zip
WTA Tour Tennis # GBA.zip
WWE - Road to Wrestlemania X8 # GBA.zip
WWE Survivor Series # GBA.zip
WWF- Road to Wrestlemania # GBA.zip
X-Bladez - Inline Skater # GBA.zip
X-Men - Reign of Apocalypse # GBA.zip
X-Men 2 - Wolverine's Revenge # GBA.zip
XS Moto # GBA.zip
xXx # GBA.zip
Yars Revenge & Pong & Asteroids # GBA.zip
Yoshi - Topsy-Turvy.zip
Yoshi's Universal Gravitation # GBA.zip
Yu Yu Hakusho - Spirit Detective # GBA.zip
Yu Yu Hakusho - Tournament Tactics # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - 7 Trials to Glory - World Championship Tournament 2005 # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Day of the Duelist - World Championship Tournament 2005.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Destiny Board Traveler # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Dungeon Dice Monsters # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - the Sacred Cards # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Ultimate Masters Edition - World Championship Tournament 2006.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - World Championship 2004 # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Worldwide Edition # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters (U) (M2).zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - Duel Academy # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! the Eternal Duelist Soul # GBA.zip
Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition - Stairway to the Destined Duel (U) (M6).zip
Zapper # GBA.zip
ZatchBell! - Electric Arena # GBA.zip
Zelda - a Link to the Past # GBA.zip
Zelda - the Minish Cap # GBA.zip
Zidane - Football Generation 2002 # GBA.zip
Zoids - Legacy # GBA.zip
Zone of the Enders - the Fist of Mars # GBA.zip
Zoo Cube # GBA.zip
Zooo # GBA.zip

total size 3.91 GB (4,208,690,781 bytes)
total files "1,015"

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Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition Looks Good

2007-06-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

Kotaku has just signed off on preliminary comparisons of the new Wii port of Resident Evil 4, initially released for the Gamecube.

This is an important milestone for Capcom, and the Wii, as most Wii ports of Gamecube games have been leaving much to be desired.

Resident Evil 4 was undoubtedly one of the best games released for the Gamecube, and easily one of the most anticipated titles for the Wii.

See the visual comparisons here.

Rejected Wii Play Games

2007-06-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

New York State Gets Tough on Games

2007-06-05T14:15:00.001-07:00

The New York State Assembly has proposed a bill which would imprison game retailers for selling objectionable game content to minors for up to 4 years, by next year.

Queen Victoria Day Gaming Marathon!

2007-05-20T00:35:00.000-07:00

Just finished a gaming marathon hosted by Duc Tran this Saturday. Duc's game collection blew my mind. It dwarfs my own, which is a respectable accomplishment.

Here's some video of us playing Wii Tennis on Duc's mammoth plasma screen

early

and late...

Canadian Console Sales for April

2007-05-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

Number of Consoles Sold

Wii 42,100
DS 34,900
PS2 18,000
360 12,800
PSP 12,100
GBA 7,900
PS3 7,200

source

Sales Figures
DS - 471K
Wii - 360K
PS2 - 194K
PSP - 183K
360 - 174K
GBA - 84K
PS3 - 82K
GameCube - 13K

source

I was down at Superstore last week, and behind the counter on the shelf were two PS3's. I asked the clerk how long they had been there.

"bout a week and a half," he said.

I haven't seen a Wii in stock anywhere since it was released six months ago. Nintendo is still, half a year later, literally selling every single unit they produce before it even makes it to store shelves.

My mom even wants one! Never in a gazillion years, would I have thought that I'd be receiving phone calls from my mother, who harped at me for years for playing too many video games, asking me if I had located the new Nintendo system for her yet.

And I still can't get over the satisfaction I'm receiving over how much of a flop the PS3 has become. How much must it hurt that the Gameboy Advance generated more coin than the PS3 did?

The sales of the PS2 are interesting, and are undoubtedly attributed to the great final generation games coming out for that system. The PSP seems to be rallying quite well also, which is something I didn't predict. The dramatic price drop Sony finally leveled on their portable undoubtedly contributed to its unlikely success, but I'd love to see the profit margin on those sales. I'd also be interested to see how game sales are for the PSP, since most of them are complete crap.

2007-05-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Couldn't resist posting this from 2P Start!
Click to enlarge

Young Vocalist from Nelson BC, Kicks Ass.

2007-05-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

Not game related, but thought this was too good not to post. Asper Switzer, younger sister of a couple friends of mine from high school in Nelson BC, just released a new CD.

Check out her Youtube debut below and then buy her CD here

Sneak Peek of Resident Evil 4 - Wii edition?

2007-05-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

The exciting announcement that Capcom will be releasing a Wii-version of Resident Evil 4, is nothing new.

This video shows how the Wii-mote may be utilized for the repackaged version of the Gamecube original.

Another gamer, successful in getting his Wii-mote to work on his PC, was able to map the wireless controller's buttons to the PC version of the game. While he was able to map motion sensing actions to the game, he was unable to configure the infrared functionality, and thus wasn't able to use the Wii-mote to aim with... a function that is very likely to be included in the Wii version of the game due out later this year

Rez played with Wii-Mote

2007-05-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

So someone configured their Wii-Mote to work on their PC, nothing new. They then mapped the buttons to a Dreamcast emulator, and booted up one of my all time favourite games, Rez.

Now the project author claims that he's mapped the motion of the target to both the nun-chuck analog stick, as well as the motion sensor in the Wii-mote. There's no way to prove that he was actually successful in getting the target to respond to the Wii-motes movements, but I'm sure it's not impossible

The project is cool, if only to show what can be done with the Wii-mote, and how it has got some people to re-examine some of the old games, and see them in a new light.

More info here

Need for Speed (in the USSR)

2007-05-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Just had to flag this newly released game from Play-Publishing
Check out the preview here
See the game site here

Kittie-Play

2007-04-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

Really nothing to say here. Think the photos kinda speak for themselves

More Proof that Bono is a complete Bonehead

2007-03-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

Aside from the fact that Bono is perhaps the most hypocritical "anti-poverty" activist the world has ever known... his credibility as a peace-activist is gets another good double flush every time he attempts to deny the pro-war, pro-US propagandic slant contained in the video game, "Mercenaries 2", of which he is a prime financier.

The political controversy generated by the game is essentially over its depiction of gung-ho American mercenaries invading Venezuela with the express purpose of overthrowing a "Leftist Oil Tyrant."

Understandably, this piece of digital garbage is drawing attention from a number of Venezuelan politicians concerned that it will add fuel to already fiery Venezuela-US relations.

Bono, of course, hoping to make a mint off its sales, denies any political agenda in the game.

Yeah buddy... and I'm sure you lent your name to Ipod out of the goodness of your heart as well.

Or, as most of us have known all along, you're just another money-hungry boot-licker trying to make a buck off the poverty-guilt market.

Save the last shred of dignity you possibly have left Bono, and scrap this piece of pro-imperialist garbage.

How to Quit World of Warcraft

2007-03-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

Little educational video that everyone playing WoW should watch.

It has an explosive ending!

Final Fantasy II - Far Better than They Say

2007-03-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

Finally finished the second "Final Fantasy" today.

This is a tough game to get through for a number of reasons. First & foremost being, it's everyone's least favourite of the entire series. The game never really had much of a chance to grow on anyone. It was never released in North America. Before producing the original Final Fantasy, Squaresoft had been notorious for releasing crap titles. (There's a reason you can't remember anything by them before the FF series.) Final Fantasy was one last ditch effort (hence the name) to save the fledgling software company for bankruptcy. So they dumbed down a few good elements from Enix's "Dragon Warrior" and hoped for the best.

After its surprise success, Square pumped out another nearly identical title for the RPG-hungry Japanese market. With a few more bucks behind them, Square decided not to push their luck in the -2D Fighter-dominated N. American market. As a result, us poor saps over here didn't se another Final Fantasy until part 4 was released for the SNES, (under the American title, Final Fantasy II)

The battle structure of FF4 was more similar to the original than the second installment was. And as such, by the time N. Americans finally had a chance to play a translated ROM file of the second game on a PC NES emulator, the experience-based leveling up structure had become standard fare for Final Fantasy.

FF2's leveling up structure is however, quite different, (and inherently flawed according to most retro game fans.) Instead of accumulating experience points after each battle, a character acquires higher stat maxes based on how much they exercise that particular skill.

This structure works quite well for gaining proficiency in various weapons and spells, and in many ways, laid the groundwork for many skill-building structures in RPGs to come. So for instance, if you're interested in becoming proficient with axes, you simple beat the piss out of as many things with your axe as possible, and before you know it, you'll be chopping faster than Paul Bunyan. Likewise, should you wish to have a more powerful cure spell... simply cast it whenever possible, whether your teammates need it or not if you're really keen.

Gaining hit points and magic points is a tad more awkward. Instead of receiving higher maximums which every level increase, your HP max increases the more HP you use!. In other words, if you get your rear tossed by some band of goblins, and you're beat within an inch of your life... should you survive the battle, there's a good chance you'll have a higher HP maximum to show for it. Certainly a plausible approach to leveling up, kinda trial-by-fire-ish. The awkwardness emerged when players realized that a great way to achieve astronomically high HP maxes early in the game was to beat their own characters within an inch of their own lives each battle. Not likely intended by the programmers, and a bit too nutsy for most fans of the series.

Then of course there were others who failed to figure this part out completely, and had a helluva time jiving with the system at all. These types tended to be the folks who just couldn't get over their Final Fantasy instincts to keep their stats as high as possible at all times. Heavy-healers like this were never able to level up fast enough, and ended up throwing the game out in frustration.

Which is really too bad, as I found out today as I muscled through the final "pandemonium" fortress to the final boss in my Gameboy Advance remake titled, "Final Fantasy - Dawn of Souls."

Dawn of Souls is essentially identical to the previously released "Final Fantasy Origins" for the PS One, except that each of the two games included has a number of added bonuses. Extra dungeons in the case of the original remake... and a completely new game in the case of part two.

All in all, the game is worth plowing through if you're able to develop a groove for the quirky leveling system. The self-abuse quirk becomes self-policing later on as the enemies become tough enough that they do a good enough job on their own of draining your health without the need for any added assistance from you.

Similar to the original Final Fantasy, part 2 is light on plot... though not quite as void as the first installment. The characters in this game do at least have names, and there are many more NPCs this time round. This of course, comes at the expense of choice over character classes, a feature which again returned in Final Fantasy III.

The game doesn't skimp on adventure either. Three times did I find myself thinking I was at the end of the game, only to discover that there was yet another dungeon to delve into... yet another (and bigger) baddie to take on.

The third time, of course, was the additional content tacked on to the end of the GBA version. The story picks up from an earlier point in the game when a secondary character sacrifices themselves for the advancement of the party, (a Final Fantasy plot staple) and carries on with that character through their afterlife. Haven't got through it today, as I was killed within the first 5 minutes of play... so I'll let you know how that turns out.

With the updated graphics of the remake, however, a lot of the ungraceful aging, usually a major deterrent to would-be retro gamers, is removed, and when combined with the ability to save anywhere, anytime... FFII was a great way to RPG on the go.

So piss on the critics. This is Final Fantasy at its greatest. Before the series was invaded by emo-teen fuck-quats.

Wii's High Online Usage Stats Misleading

2007-03-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

A number of articles are beginning to surface, heralding the high spike in online users experienced by the Wii in the last couple months. (here's one such article.)

The stats quoted show the number of unique online users on the Wii has risen to 1.6 million. A number higher than even those put up by the 360's XBOX Live users, at 1.2 million.

Taken at face value, these reports inject a lot of false hope into the hearts of those rooting for the success of Nintendo's David underdog at the expense of the other two goliaths in the market.

A couple of flags go up immediately, however, as soon as these figures are quoted - since no industry-journalists covering this latest stories seem to be analyzing what these "unique" users are doing while "online" with their consoles.

Not one of these writers bothered to point out that the Wii is yet to have produced for it, even one game utilizing online capabilities. Had this question be asked... then certainly someone would have realized that obviously no one among the 1.6 million of these users are actually playing games while they're online.

The number of Xbox Live users spending their online time is much easier to calculate since Microsoft charges for the service. And although I'm certainly not advocating that approach for Nintendo, it has to be remembered that the Wii utilizes a feature called "Wii Connect24." Those familiar with the feature while understand that the Wii not only is the Wii extremely simple to get online, (built-in wireless modem can pick up a variety of signals from your existing network, your neighbour's, etc...) but it's constantly exchanging information and updates with the Nintendo mothership. Hence the name, "Connect24."

So theoretically, it's possible for Nintendo to count as a "unique user," a Wii owner who has never used the Opera web browser, downloaded a virtual console game, or allowed a Mii to travel. However, as long as their Wii is picking up their neighbour's internet connection, their Wii is having a round the clock discussion with Nintendo headquarters.

Just what percentage of Nintendo's online users fall into this category is impossible to determine... but given that there isn't a single online game out yet for the console, it's safe to say that the Wii's online capabilities are not being used for the same thing by "unique users," as those attributed to the Xbox.

Nintendo Set to Repeat Gamecube Connectivity Mistakes

2007-03-14T18:32:00.000-07:00

A good Wii news site, "Nintendo-Revolution," through an interview with the Wii's future online provider, "Gamespy," seems to have confirmed that so far, Nintendo is going ahead with their previously-suspected plans of requiring users to input different friends lists and codes for every online game they purchase.

In other words, if you want to play the upcoming Pokemon title online with your friends, not only would you have to input their painfully long console code into your system, but yet another unique game code, specific to their Pokemon game disc, as well.

This may not seem to a major issue to a lot of casual gamers. But imagine you have 15 friends you would like to play online games with. Then lets assume conservatively, that you've got five games you want to play with these friends. First, it's a pain in the ass to have to enter overly long numerical codes for each of those friends' consoles. But now imagine having to enter another unique code for every one of those people again for every game you've got in common. And keep in mind that you have no keyboard with which to accomplish this. Rather, you've got a little Wii-mote, which is slow for data entry at best, and certainly annoying after entering even one or two.

Then add to that, the fact that the remotes are battery munchers... and consider that it would probably take at least one set of batteries just to enter the data required for the scenario above.

Kinda begins to take the fun out of the whole thing. And the gaming community seems to be up in arms over it. And rightfully so, I suppose. There's a lot of people who are really rooting for the Wii. They know it's underpowered overall. But many of them, myself included, understand the important changes Nintendo is pioneering in terms of creativity and innovation in the industry. It's a given that the Wii's online capabilities will be inferior to that of the 360 or PS3... but given that, many are wondering why Nintendo would set themselves up for such an abysmal failure when they're on such a role.

No one wants to be annoyed while playing games. If I was interested in doing data entry in my spare time... I'd spend a good many extra hours at work.

Nintendo put itself in an embarrassing position after taking a "connectivity-over-online" capability with the GameCube. By "connectivity," Nintendo meant the Gamecube's ability to connect physically to either Gameboys, or other Gamecubes. For the most part, gamers laughed at their attempt to pass such a horseshit gimmick off as "online play." Additionaly, very few people were ever enticed into buying more Gameboys just to plug them into their Gamecube.

Nintendo's latest debacle with the unique game codes reeks of this kind of garbage.

They've got until Pokemon's release in June to fix this idiocy. Their best bet, with their current precarious overall position in the market is to spend their time trying to make online play more free for gamers, rather than wasting resources on ways to positively spin and market such a hair-brained plan.

Both Sony and Microsoft have been waiting for Nintendo to throw them a bone... and you can bet this'll be it.

Wii-tarded (couldn't resist)

B.A. Rocks Vancouver - Fucks Off Up North

2007-03-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Like a whirlwind, the world-renowned folk legend known to many as B.A. Johnston graced Vancouver with his eloquent serenade. And as quickly as he had arrived, the bastard fucked off up north on a greyhound bus.

check out below, a record of the legacy he left behind...

Review of house show, and previous night's gig at Pat's pub
Photos taken by my buddy James
B.A.'s MySpace site
B.A.'s LastFM site & Fan Club

Listen to Some B.A. songs

Buy B.A.'s CDs

Best Zinger From GDC

2007-03-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Absolutely no positive verification for this. I simply found it posted on a comment board under Kotaku's report on Miyamoto's keynote address for Nintendo at the GDC yesterday. Thought I'd post it anyway, you know, in the interest of spreading rumours.

So let me paint the picture for you.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote speech was so well attended that even Sony's world division president, Phil Harrison was in attendance.

So picture Phil sitting there in the front row, as evidenced by the above picture.

Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime is standing off-stage consulting with people, posing for pictures, etc.

A kid in the front row shouts at Reggie "REGGIE! You gotta kick some ass and take some names!"

"Like who?!" Reggie shouted back

"Phil Harrison, FRONT ROW!" The kid says

"I think we already did that" Says Reggie
The nearby crowd laughs, as is appropriate.

Wii Magnetism

2007-03-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

Though most attention at the Game Developer's Convention over the last couple of days has been focused on Sony's announcement of their upcoming "Home" interface, a few keen observers have been paying close attention to the wise words of an old master.

Some call him the "Spielberg of Gaming." Others, like myself, think the comparison should be reversed.

Creator of gaming icons, Donkey Kong, Mario, and Link delivered his keynote address yesterday to a packed house. Even Sony Worldwide President, Phil Harrison procured for himself, a front row seat.

To many, his speech may have seemed scattered and vague, as it bounced around various points in the history of the industry. Part of the problem, of course is that it was delivered in Japanese, and all we've heard have been English translations. Speaking in Japanese, of course means that Miyamoto also thinks in Japanese, and as such, his he comes to his points in a manner fundamentally different from the average westerner. As such, many of us have difficulty interpreting his message. Whether it's meant to be the same for everyone is anyone's guess.

For me, Miyamoto issued a veiled warning to the industry. And in a way, I think it was aimed directly for folks like Sony's Phil Harrison, though I'm absolutely positive it bounced right off their noses.

By speaking about the evolution of games, the need for humanity to be a key component in their development, and a continual priority placed on enjoyment... I think Shigs was warning others in the industry not to attempt to *duplicate* humanity, as games like World of Warcraft do, and as Sony's "home" might.

To illustrate this point, Miyamoto spoke about his development tactic of always trying to picture the look one of his games will produce on the face of its player. How many smiles and giggles of glee are emitted from someone attached to a PC playing a reality-simulator for hours on end. How to, will Sony's "home" perform in this respect.

To catch a glimpse of Shigeru's genius, and to see an unintended demonstration of his goal... take a couple minutes to watch this video. (please pardon the 30 second ad preceding it)

Summer Wii Titles Announced at GDC

2007-03-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

Reported from Video Game Generation

Not a very promising list in my opinion. Nintendo's titles will be worth putting some cash out for. Majesco's Bust-a-Move Bash could be fantastic, or it could ruin a great franchise. Midway hasn't given anyone a reason to think another Mortal Kombat game would be worth their dough in about a decade.

The new Pokemon is said to be Nintendo's first online game for the Wii, and they better hurry-up with some follow-ups if they plan not to repeat the lackluster competitive performance of the Gamecube.

In any case, as relatively depressing as this list is... Wii owners shouldn't fret too much. It is the summer line-up after all. No console can expect will expect any major blockbusters until the Christmas season.

April 9	Super Paper Mario	Nintendo
April	Prince of Persia Rival Swords	Ubisoft
April	Bust-A-Move Bash	Majesco
April	Bioncle Heroes	Eidos
May 15	Mortal Kombat: Armageddon	Midway
May 29	Mario Party 8	Nintendo
May	Tamagotchi Party On	Namco Bandai
May	Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End	Disney Interactive
May	Escape from Bug Island	Eidos
May	Spider-Man The Movie 3	Activision
June 11	Big Brain Academy	Nintendo
June 25	Pokémon Battle Revolution	Nintendo
June	Cosmic Family	Ubisoft
Spring	Heatseeker	Codemasters
Q2	Legend of the Dragon American Game Factory
Summer	Shrek the Third	Activision
Summer	Transformers the Game	Activision

and no, you don't have to wait for Yoshi's new title until this summer... you can download it right now if you know where to look.
:: and make sure you turn the music in the sidebar off before you hit the play button ::

B3 - No More!

2007-03-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

Well... it was pretty goddamned inevitable.

Hadn't published a non-gaming-related post on this blog in months, so I decided to do what was far too long in coming: change the name and format of the old "Bathroom Breeding Bolsheviks" blog... to what you've got before you now.

So welcome to the new-&-improved game-industry focussed, "Classic Controller!"

Hope you like the new renovations. It reflects far more accurately the content, however, all the old posts are still in the archive on the right sidebar.

Additionally... nothing has happened to the good ol' "Pacific Tribune" so if you're looking for more politically-related content, head on over there.

And as always, the "East-Van Cinephiles" is still operational for all your movie reviewing needs, although admittedly, it's not well maintained.

And if you're reading this as a feed through my FaceBook profile... just click on the "original post" link at the top to see the new layout I'm talking about.

beers!

~ekman

PS. The site address has not changed, as it was never name specific. If you're linked to this blog, I'll leave it up to you whether or not you want to change the name on the link on your own site. I'm easy either way.

Twilight Princess Down, and no Addiction Treatment Required.

2007-03-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

Unless I'm in denial that is...

Had two days off this week, and only one goal.

Locked myself in our games room for both days. Finally emerged today, hairy-faced, haggard eyes, and extremely stinky... but I've finally seen the ending of "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" for the Nintendo Wii.

This didn't all happen over the last couple days mind you. It's the product of just under 4 months of on and off playing. Grand total, I think the Wii logged me at just over 43 hours of game time... so I suppose that's an average of 10 hours per month. Not too shabby.

Of course, I could have put countless more hours into the game. There's tonnes of things I didn't find, quests I didn't finish, and one day I may go back through it all. In all honesty however, when you love games as much as I do, the time you spend on one game tends to translate into time you're not spending playing all the other games you've been salivating over for months. And since I've recently acquired a whole number of playable downloads for the Dreamcast I bought last year off my buddy James... the list of games I've written for myself to get through is getting pretty hefty.

In any case, back to Zelda. I've played some epic adventure RPG's in my life, (the most glaring exception of which is Zelda: Ocarina of Time) and I can easily say that Twilight Princess ranks among the most satisfying. Nothing I say in terms of a review will add on the multitude that have already published, but I will say that it contains within it, all the components of what a classic game should be. Progressive character depth and development, extremely intuitive, enjoyable and addictive gameplay, breath-taking level design and settings (all with a fraction of the horsepower contained within both Microsoft and Sony's consoles) and grand horny honour music. (Horny as in... lots of brass horns... not sexy)

Most important, and contrary to the game featured in my previous post, Zelda is designed to play in a hardcore fashion, or at your leisure. I enjoyed every epic sword battle, and every mind-bending puzzle... but I never experienced the withdrawal so often talked about by World of Warcraft players. When I finally finished the game, (and not without a little help from a third-party game guide) I felt extremely satisfied that I had definitely got my money's worth. I also finished in total agreement with every game reviewer that awarded Nintendo with a 2006 game-of-the-year honour for this this gem. In fact, it's convinced me to download Nintendo's recent Virtual Console addition, Ocarina of time, the only Zelda game considered better than Twilight Princess, and considered by many to be the finest game of all time.

Give it a go... you'll thank me for it.

World of WarCraft’s Subscription Base Reaches 8.5 mil.

2007-03-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

This scares me... and that's saying a lot coming from a game addict like me.

According to this article, the latest WoW expansion module is posting sales figures that would intimidate even the most popular stand-alone PC titles. Over 3.5 million in just one month, to be exact. And remember, that's just for an add-on to an existing game. Which means far more people own the original game... and even more are now picking it up to go along with the latest expansion.

Why am I not happy to hear about this kind of popularity for a company like Blizzard Entertainment? That's a good question. I'm a big fan of Blizzard. It's the only company that's ever produced a non-console-based game that has dominated a good portion of my time. I was a huge fan of the Diablo series. I was an active guild member back in Diablo 1 (read - complete geek.) And I waited eagerly, excreting not a small amount of slobbery drool while Blizzard took its sweet-assed time putting the finishing touches on Diablo 2.

Concurrent with these games, were a couple of other extremely popular online titles. the original Warcraft, and its spinoff hit, Starcraft. Both of these games helped launch the online military strategy sim genre into the mainstream. They were both wildly successful for much of the same reason Diablo was. Simple yet addictive online multiplayer gameplay - and no extra charge for the server time.

That's right... you could always play Blizzard games online for free. It's a concept pretty foreign to the developers of today's online games... (World of Warcraft included) These games sold tremendously well, and a lot of people logged a lot of hours on them.

But nothing like World of Warcraft. There have always been game addicts who spend far too much time attached to a keyboard or a controller... but never before in memory has a game ever sucked in so many such players as this one. There's a fundamental shift beginning to emerge in the online gaming industry which is extremely harmful in my opinion. And it's well on its way to contributing to a horrible stigma for the entire industry.

Back in the early days of gaming... Atari, NES, etc... it was pretty tough to get legitimately addicted to a game. Sure there were some real gems of time-suckers... but you can only look at the green bars of pong - the *blip, beep, smip* of Donkey Kong's barrels for so long, before you have to turn the goddamned thing off and listen to some Milli Vanilli tapes.

RPG games from the 16-bit era began to challenge that by including huge expansive lands to explore, multiple endings to experience, and tear-inducing musical tracks to keep your CD's on their shelf. But still, these games were drained of their exploration potential after at most, 80 hours of play. You can only fit so much on a cartridge after all.

CD-rom games had potential to lengthen things out a bit... but most of the space was utilized for movie cut-scenes and even better quality music. The games themselves didn't stretch too much in length... and partly because the money-grubbers in the emerging industry had begun to realize that shorter and easier games mean more people having to buy more games more often.

The addition of online multiplayer features didn't change this formula until quite recently, when producers of games like "Ultima Online," "Final Fantasy Online," "Phantasy Star Online," and now World of Warcraft, figured out how to charge for online server access per month.

With this development, the entire purpose of games changed. No longer was it in the best interest of the game developer to have gamers finish their game in a few weeks so that they'd head down to a retailer to pick up the sequel. The goal now, (similar to that of a phone-sex line,) was to keep gamers engaged (subscribed) as long as humanly possible.

This is no easy feat to accomplish considering how many games are available for play in today's industry. As such, the most commonly used tactic by game producers seems to be to include as many life-imitating features in a game as possible.

For instance, allow a gamer to acquire their own abode. Allow them to deck it out in a very customizable fashion. Instead of sticking to the age-old RPG formula of simply "levelling-up" insert hierarchical badges of achievement and ranks which dictate their relationship to other gamers. Throw in some career choices, like fishing, cooking, maybe becoming a merchant, etc. Facilitate fantasy marriages between characters, and then simulate group dynamics through guilds and clans. Tie it all together with a self-sustaining in-game economy which allows you to quickly amass a healthy portion of virtual wealth just so long as you're willing to go out and beat the tar out of an infinite number of baddies, and you've got a virtual world which is invariably more appealing than real life... particularly if you're working some dead-end minimum wage job, cause that's all your real-life economy will make available to you. (yes, and too much time playing video games will contribute to insanely long run-on sentences as well.)

Now, is Warcraft of bad game? obviously not. Quite clearly, it rocks as far as games go. I can't review it for you, cause I've never played it. But regardless of how good it is, it's time we started taking a look at the social effect this game is having on a growing number of users.

In many respects, I think open-ended games like this should be placed in their own unique categories. Personally, I don't consider them to be games at all. They are far more akin to early virtual reality programs, and in order for them to be profitable, they must be designed to encourage addiction among users.

And similar to any other form of addiction, we're beginning to see the social fallout emerge. Most folks have already heard of the young woman in Asia who died of exhaustion after a marathon stint of WoW. Others have heard stories of players losing spouses, jobs, etc after logging insane hours.

This Newsweek article, goes into the issue a bit, and is worth a read. So far, the ire of anti-gaming politicians in the US is focused on violence, sex, and generally anti-Christian content in games. Obviously these idiots are misguided and fake, looking only to appear "tough-on-the-heathens" to their religious-right support base. If and when the focus ever shifts to the addictive properties of games like WoW... the solution should not be to outlaw them, or regulate their content. Heroine and crack is illegal, and you don't see the use of those substances receding as a result.

What will be needed, however, is increased attention focussed on the increasingly addictive nature of games like WoW. Hopefully, attention like this will lead to an emergence of addiction centres, and other such programs which will help folks who have a tough time differentiating between life, and their $15/month virtual life.

Video Games as Sex Toys?

2007-03-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

So yeah... finally got my hands on a downloaded copy of a game I've been trying to find for some time called: Rez.

It's nearly impossible to explain what this game is like. If you've ever played any of the Sega Saturn on-rail shoots like Panzer Dragoon... then you can kinda get the idea. I guess the closest thing to it on the Super Nintendo would have been Star Fox.. but it's really a shakey comparison.

Rez melds trance rave music with crazy acid visuals. On the Dreamcast... with a vibrator stick plugged in, the controller vibrates in your hand along with the music.

There is a Playstation 2 version as well... and although the graphics aren't quite as fluid as the Dreamcast's, it reportedly comes with pretty much the most interesting peripheral I've ever seen for a video game. It's called the "Trance Vibrator," and if you're lucky enough to get your hands on it, your guess is as good as anyone's as to what the thing was designed for besides masturbation!

Don't take my word for it... click on the photo for an article by one of my favourite game journalists, GameGirlAdvance for an in-depth explanation of how it all works exactly.

Sony's Canned Response to Growing Complaints

2007-03-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

In response to the growing number of European gamers gettin' bellyachy over the exclusion of PS2 and PS1 backwards compatibility in the new PAL version of the PS3 set to launch later in March 07, Sony exec, Phil Harrison found it useful to address the issue in an "exclusive" interview with "ThreeSpeech blog." A blog reportedly "independent of Sony, yet somehow able to score all the "exclusive" interviews.

In an industry rife with journalistic corruption, (game reviewers getting paid to write positive reviews, ads being pulled from magazines daring enough to write negate reviews... etc) it's pretty tough to believe that "ThreeSpeech" is in any way journalistically independent.

During the interview, this quote comes up:

"...who can honestly say that they ever played a PlayStation game on their PS2s? I personally, have played one on mine: the awesome Vib-Ribbon."

Because of the awkward writing style, it's tough to figure out whether Phil Harrison is saying this, or whether it's being said by the interviewer. In any case, it's a hilarious statement when you think about it.

Let's pretend for a moment, that a similar statement was made about the movie industry... for instance:

"honestly, how many of you have ever gone back to watch the original Star Wars once all the sequels came out? I for one... have watched it once... but only cause I couldn't find my copy of 'the Phantom Menace."

It would sound ridiculous, wouldn't it? It's as if the production of a movie sequel completely eliminates the cultural impact or enjoyability of the original installment.

By applying this logic to the gaming industry, Sony has just basically written off every game they've ever produced in the past, simply because their newer stuff is shinier and louder.

It's yet another example of why Sony has completely lost touch with folks who play, and appreciate video games. They're the Kraft Dinner of the gaming industry, and someone needs to tell them that it doesn't matter how much goddamned yellow powdered cheese you put into with the noodles, it's still just noodles.

Now maybe that's a bad example... cause goddamn do I love Kraft Dinner... but even I can't eat it all the time. In fact, I have a tough time eating it twice in a month. Anything more than that... and it really just starts to taste like the same old bloody Krafty D I had last time.

And that's really how people are feeling about every single game that's come out for the PS3 so far. There's nothing new... there's nothing groundbreaking. Sure... everything's shinier... but we ain't crows... and it's innovation, creativity, and change that holds peoples' interest.

But beyond all that... after you announce that the system you're asking everyone to buy isn't going to have all the capability you promised... you don't turn around and alienate an entire portion of your customer base by saying that pretty much everyone who still plays all the old games needs to git with the times.

I'm one of those folks who play all my old PS1 games on my PS2. I'm one of those people who only got around to getting a PS2 cause it finally came out with a couple innovative 3rd party games in its dying days, (like guitar hero)

To suggest that my tendency to replay the greats is a waste of time is really quite insulting. You might as well tell Roger Ebert to quit wasting his time on "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" when newer gems like "Dukes of Hazzard," and "Scary Movie 4" have hit the theatres.

It also gives us some insight into the true lack of support and resources Sony will reserve for their PS3 once a new hardware idea takes them elsewhere.

Sega learned all these lessons the hard-way by pissing all over backwards capability, and releasing too many systems too soon, and cutting previous ones loose before they had finished their full cycle. The lost third party developer support... they lost retailer support, and most importantly, they lost confidence from poor folks like me who had shelled out cash for both the Sega CD and the 32X, only to find them both abandoned a year or so after purchase.

Ironically, it's Sega who has learned from this lesson, and continues to release games now for their last console, a full 6 years after discontinuing it. They may not be making a lot of money by doing so... but they're certainly rebuilding their consumer support base.

~and just cause I can't let it go... here's another excerpt from the interview. I'm sure you'll find it a wonderful example of "hard-hitting" questions without a hint of answer dodging on the part of the Sony exec.

Q: Can you give us a ballpark figure for the number of PS2 titles which will be playable at launch on the PS3?

PH: “The situation is changing every day, but on March 23, we expect the list to include over 1,000 PS2 titles.”

Q: And presumably, you will be concentrating on the big titles?

PH: “We can’t give any information about specific titles but, clearly, that would be our policy.”

Q: It has been suggested that reducing the components on the PS3’s motherboard would pave the way for a reduction in its price to come about more quickly. Is that a fair analysis?

PH: “Price reductions are something that we wouldn’t comment on specifically. But you know the business model very well – we strive to get the cost of manufacturing down as soon as possible, and as soon as we can pass cost savings onto the consumers, we will.”

Q: Just how important is backwards-compatibility?

PH: “I think the reasons why people buy PS3s are the new games that it offers, and the HD content experiences provided by games and movies, the opportunity to access the PlayStation Network, and titles like MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man

__________________________

And just one more shot...

here's another great example of an "unscripted" interview with our friend Phil Harrison.

It's uncanny how much time they spend re-assuring us that the interview is in fact... "unscripted."

sure.

Dreamcast Game Released 6 yrs After Console's Death

2007-02-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

I've recently become a big fan of the old 2D bottom up shooter. Basically, descendants of Space Invaders, who themselves have become relative relics.

I got hooked on the genre a couple weeks ago when I downloaded "Super Star Soldier" for the old TurboGrafx-16, on my Wii's "Virtual Console"

I have since discovered that my beloved Sega Dreamcast, now 6 full years out of production, was in fact the best system ever conceived for this particular type of game. For whatever reason, a couple dedicated companies decided to release a slough of shmup titles for the DC faithful.

And on Feb 22 of this year, one of those companies: Warashi released Trigger Heart Exelica (published by Sega)

The addition of yet another killer shmup to the Dreamcast library wouldn't in itself be newsworthy... if the Dreamcast hadn't been discontinued over a half-decade ago.

When combined with the insane number of homebrew games that have been written for Sega's swan-song console, no other system, to my knowledge, has kept up such an active afterlife.

Pick up a copy of the game here:

screenshot source: Dreamcast Scene

2007-02-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

Got this from my friend James

Horrible song, but I love it a lot anyway.

Sony Banks on Free Peanuts Appeasing Peanut-Butter Starved Aussies

2007-02-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

Or maybe it's vegemite they're feeling robbed of, but in any case, Sony has just committed the second biggest mistake console companies make before they descend into the pits of obsolete-ism...

...and that is, banking on free pack-ins to move their consoles.

After ripping out all the guts required to play PS1&2 games from the European and Australian PS3 machines, Sony has hoped that a free Blu-Ray version of "Casino Royale" would appease the growing number of frothing gamers spouting off against the hardware change. Folks with a more casual attitude about the industry are likely wondering why PS3 buyers are so ripped up over the loss of such a seemingly small feature in the first place. In my opinions, buyers, particularly those with pre-orders, have every reason to be right-pissed. Many folks plunked a sizable portion of cash down months ago to reserve a system that had been advertised with the capability to play their existing Playstation libraries. How many pre-order refunds is Sony willing to administer now that they aren't delivering with the original package that convinced folks to part with their cash?

None, of course, they'd rather chuck in a sub-par movie. They haven't even the charity to throw a game in with the package - just some flick that very few will ever watch more than once.

Of course, what is so humourous about this band-aid solution, is that failed console after failed console, (and there are a lot) have initiated their death spiral by opting to pack in extra games to attempt to compete with the price cuts of the competition. It never works, however, because nobody ever buys a console just because a game they can't even choose is included with it. They buy it based on how the entire library of games looks.

And they especially don't buy it when they can get a console from the competition for a cheaper price.

Of course, Sony can't even bring themselves to pack in an extra game... because in Australia, they're hoping to make back all the money they're losing on each console they sell, by charging a minimum of $99 per title. An outrageous price considering the games are going for half that cost in most of the Northern Hemisphere, and Aussies know it.

They're decision to go with a movie rather than a game might also have something to do with the fact that... if you're going to try to use a game to sell a console, it better be a good one. Oh shit... haven't got any good ones? howz bout a movie then?

Of course, with the $1000AUS price tag slapped on the Aussie PS3, does anyone actually believe that a free "Casino Royale" is going to be the deciding factor pushing the undetermined to finally part with the contents of their wallet?

PS3 to Sacrifice Some Backwards Compatibility for EUR Launch

2007-02-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

Stinging from their lower-than expected sales in both Japan and North America, Sony has taken some cost cutting measures leading up to the March 07 release of the PS3 in Europe.

According to this PunchJump article, Sony has decided to sacrifice much of the expensive PS2 hardware compatibility on their machine, and rely on software emulation for PS1 and PS2 games.

"Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology."

David Reeves, President of SCEE

While software emulation doesn't always have to be worse than direct hardware compatibility, it's very unlikely that there will be any improvements on the older games. Abandoning a commitment to full PS2 compatibility is, in my opinion, a risky move by Sony, but definitely a sign of distress.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Sony would definitely have to look at scaling back some of its hardware muscle in order to bring the PS3 into a competitive zone for game consoles. It would appear as though they've begun to recognize that, but it may be far too little, just a tad too late.

Lack of backwards compatibility has been a major thorn in the side of Nintendo's console generations. Part of this is due to Nintendo's long reliance on cartridge media when everyone else had adopted CDs, which made compatibility between generations much more cumbersome... and it's only with the Wii that they've begun to get it right.

Arguably, one of the major reasons the PS2 was able to so fully dominate the home gaming market, was that it played PS1 games so well. This feature is immeasurably popular with users who have amassed a sizable collection of games, and would like to continue playing them long into the next generation. Sony did this better than either Nintendo or Sega could. Sega's console demise was largely predicated on their explicit refusal to offer this feature on any of their consoles. When combined with the shortness of each console lifespan... it inevitably spelled death.

What will make the absence of this feature more stinging to European gamers is that the feature exists on both Japanese and North American units. They will undoubtedly feel as though they're being fed a disabled console, and will quite likely opt to obtain theirs second-hand from eBay, if they're really that eager to get one at all.

What could prove even more disastrous for Sony about this decision, is the fact that Europe, (and particularly Great Britain) quite arguably have the most developed retro-gaming communities in the world. One of the most reputable retro-gaming magazines of the same name is from England. In other words, if there were ever a large geographic grouping of people who would get right pissed at not being able to play their existing older games... it's the one Sony is trying to feed this new limpy machine to.

And with the £424.99 price tag... it leaves one to wonder whether they cut the price at all, after abandoning the compatibility feature, or whether Sony opted to continue ahead with their original price, and hope to recoup some of the horrendous losses suffered after their previous Christmas launches.

They'll reportedly save $40 per console by opting for software emulation over hardware. Of course, the cost of developing games for third-party developers will now increase should they wish to sell their games in Europe or Australia. Part of the reason the cardinal rule of "not changing hardware configurations for consoles - ever" was developed is so that game developers are saved the cost of having to test their games on a multitude of different specs. It's the main cost advantage consoles have over PCs. Sony has seemingly taken steps to eliminate this, not only with the initial complexity of their hardware, but now with new variations of it.

Additionally, how much Sony loses when Europeans and Aussies tell them where they can stuff their little "magic box" is anyone's guess at this point.

Great follow-up article on the Aussie launch here.

Merrill Lynch Weighs in on Wii Predictions

2007-02-24T17:34:00.000-08:00

And predicts the Wii a winner by the end of this hardware cycle. A very interesting claim by one the best known investment firms on earth, considering that nearly every game industry-focused market analyst seems to be jumping on the Wii-doomsday bandwagon.

The maverick prediction from Merrill Lynch may have more to do with their ability to produce independent market research... rather than depend on round-about funding from interested parties such as... uh... Sony.

No proof of any of that sort of stuff of course... but were I a Sony exec... I'd be doing everything possible to maintain third-party game developer confidence in my system. And that would certainly not place me above such tactics as paying off "research firms" to make "predictions" on which system would be around for the long-haul.

Not convinced Sony is capable of such dishonesty? Take a boo at this little blog, apparently created by some average Joe and his "cousin Pete" to convince their parents to buy them a Playstation Portable system for Christmas.

Read about Sony getting busted for making the phony blog here.

What this humble industry observer finds so hilarious, is how many times the big players make the same mistakes over and over again. Its as if new executives keep taking over the helms of the companies after the old ones jet off with their multi-million dollar buyouts and stock option selloffs, and the replacements refuse to peruse through the pages of the company's history.

ScreenDigest, the "research firm" predicting the triumph of the PS3 states the following reason as the main plank of their argument:

"...unlike Nintendo Wii, PS3 as well as Xbox 360 offer access to another type of entertainment, other than gaming."

The "other type of entertainment" ScreenDigest is referring to is the larger hard drives on the PS3 and XBOX, possibly enabling movie file and MP3 playback. As well as their Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives respectively.

So many flags pop up at this argument. The first thing these "analysts" should have done is look up a wikipedia article on the demise of some previous "multi-media systems, such as the infamously powerful-for-its age, 3D0.

The marketing strategy for this powerhouse, in competition with then, industry titans, Sega and Nintendo, was identical to what we're now hearing from Sony:
"For a significant period of the products life cycle, 3DO's official stance on pricing was that the 3DO was not a video game console, it was a high-end audio-visual system and was priced accordingly, so no price adjustment was needed."

source

What makes the situation even more precarious for the PS3, is that a price drop would be nearly unfathomable in the next few years without a serious downgrade in hardware capabilities. The PS3 is already said to be selling for as much as $300-$400 below cost. And even this only brings it into the price range of a medium priced PC.

Which brings us to the second reason the "multi-purpose-game-console" model never works. The market demographic Sony is targeting with their console is definitely the type of gamer who has some kind of a PC. It's also the kind of person, who many years past, discovered that their PC was in fact, a marvelous multi-media device. Many of them have likely even gone so far as to move at least one of their PC's out of the office or bedroom, and into the living room, or wherever they watch movies or listen to music.

So why do these game-company execs never ask themselves the question... what can our console do that a PC hasn't already been doing for years?

And when the price of said console begins to enter the realm of the PC, which the PS3 certainly has done, like the 3DO and Phillips CDI before it... that's precisely the question consumers begin to ask themselves.

Sure the PS3 graphics are great... but there's a very good reason why those graphics haven't really generated the excitement Sony would have liked them to - high end PC's have been producing similar graphics since before the PS3 launch, and by now, with some of ATI's crossfire cards, as well as NVIDIA's dual polygon munchers, a brand new, smokin' hot gaming rig with a good solid dual core processor is capable of spitting out eye-candy surpassing even the might PS3. This is of course, inevitable as it always has been. Regardless of what the consoles come up with in their latest generation, the PC market simply moves exponentially faster, and it's impossible to keep up in terms of hardware muscle.

Nintendo seems to have finally figured this out, and has focused on decent gameplay, rather than eye-candy, and it's paying off.

And as for non-gaming related activities, I've had no problem getting Divx movies to play off the SD flash card which can be inserted in the Wii. I've also had a great time streaming music straight of the web through the Wii's surprisingly functional Opera web browser. I've sent email, read forums, posted on this blog, played online games, and watched youtube on my Wii

All of this of course, is separate from Nintendo's own Wii-based news channel, sourced by the Associated Press, in addition to their weather channel updated continually by the weather channel.

Not only can I store photos on my Wii, I can plug my camera into it, and run slide shows right off my camera. After that, of course, I can add music to the slide shows, or edit the photos with a scaled down photo editor... all on my "game" console.

Then of course, there's the whole issue of the controller itself... which looks far more like a media-center remote than the clunky two-hander packed in with the PS3.

So many other factors demonstrate the versatility of the Wii, and the hilarity of Sony's attempt to market the PS3 as the new magic media box. Primary among them, is the size of the two consoles, and perhaps more importantly, the noise generated by both of them. The PS3, a hulking behemoth which in many ways, puts the godzilla-coffin housing the original XBox to shame, emits so much fan and HD noise that you better hope your sound system can drown it out. An entire sub-industry has propped up in the past few years in the PC market based solely around balancing the noise generated by the increasing number of fans required to cool CPU's as they get faster and hotter. That Sony would abandon all concern over this issue for their "media-box" is more than simply a trivial oversight.

The Wii on the other hand, might be mistaken for an external hard drive from afar. Its optical drive makes a bit of noise while loading games, but its fan is virtually silent. This is in part due to the low power consumption of the Wii, and the lower, but more stable hardware capabilities, which simply generates less heat.

Of course, none of that will have whole lot to do with the success of the Wii. Ultimately, the price of the unit, in conjunction with the consistency and quality of its games will determine that. The additional frills are designed to entice users to turn the Wii on more times per day, and for that function, they'll likely continue to be successful as long as Nintendo continues to be creative with what they add.

Regardless of how great PS3 games are... development will cease if developers can turn a profit because the console's install base is stunted, because either not enough people could afford to buy the unit, or not enough could see a reason why they should.

But then again, we wouldn't want Trip Hawkins to be the only one to have learned this the hard way, would we?

Microsoft Looking for Ways to Thump Game Development Staff?

2007-02-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

According to this article, from Gamasutra - Microsoft has recently taken on in a relatively mysterious capacity, and old stalwart from our favourite "friend" of workers in the game development industry - Electronic Arts.

Don Mattrick's job description is vague, "advisory," and temporary - which of course, is CEO-eze for "downsizer"

The timing of Mr Gates' latest HR acquisition is predictable. The production costs for his XBOX 360 and its components/software is smack in the middle of the three industry contenders. Sony's PS3 in the high end of the spectrum with software developers complaining of the expensive development costs associated with righting for the systems ground-breaking (and yet untested) "Cell Processor."

The XBOX 360 is nowhere near, however, the low costs associated with the more accesable Wii. The Wii's games are by now means revolutionary graphically, and the plus side of that factor is how familiar the technically inferior hardware is to programmers. Real eye-openers might be possible on the PS3, but with a stunted console install base, combined with higher per-unit production costs - developers are undoubtedly realizing that to turn a profit on PS3 games, they would have to sell 2 or 3 times as many as they would were the game done on the Wii instead... and that ain't easy when there's fewer people who could even play the game in the market.

This dynamic would have worked in Microsoft's favour had the Wii not been such a quick-start out of the gates... and now Gates is finding himself having to make moves to identify with the newer and expanding section of the market being generated by Nintendo.

And bottom line, that means lowering production costs to increase profitability to a level that will help shorten their losses while they attempt to increase their install base.

At least, this is what's going through the heads of Microsoft's executives, and so as all good CEO's do when they want to re-assure investors - they begin laying off workers while attacking the compensation levels of those who are allowed to remain.

And what better way to facilitate that process, than to hire the best in the biz as an advisor?

Hence the news about Don Mattrick's hiring.

If past moves by EA are any indication, then Microsoft workers can expect efforts to eke out from them, increased unpaid overtime hours during so-called "crunch-times"

Consumers can expect a number of new creative ways extract from them, user fees on "value-added" components of the game they already paid for.

It's really too bad that they'll try to pull the savings out of the workforce instead of recognizing that the mistake has already been made - and it lies in their emphasis placed on the so-called "Graphics Arms-Race." What they fail to recognize, is that the success of Nintendo's Wii is not in how little it pays it's production staff - but how their decision to release a more competitively-priced, accessable piece of hardware, more in tune with the wallets of the market is what will eventually sell games and turn a profit. The ironic side of Nintendo's strategy is that programmers writing for the Wii, giving its comparative hardware limitations, will be forced to find more innovative ways to make games enjoyable. This means focus on gameplay, rather than using spasm-inducing eye-candy as a crutch behind which programmers can hide because their gameplay sucks.

Sony, with their PS3, in so many respects, are making the same mistakes Sega made with the Sega CD. Too much reliance on flashy visuals, and to hell with how fun the game is.

And ultimately, Sega learned that eye-candy is only nice to look at for so long, and then you want to eat it. And if it tastes like shit, then you certainly won't be taking any more bites anytime soon.

Spending even fewer resources on game development, undoubtedly to be the key recommendation from EA's Don Mattrick to Microsfot bigwhigs, will only sour the taste of their eye-candy.

_____________________________________
February 23, 2007

Microsoft Hires Ex-EA Exec In “Advisory Role”

According to a news report in the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has hired ex-Electronic Arts executive Don Mattrick in an “advisory role” to work on strategy for the company’s PC and Xbox games divisions.

Mattrick was previously considered as heir apparent to current Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst, but left the company in 2005 after expressing disdain for the idea of running a public company. Mattrick was one of the co-founders of Distinctive Software (DSI), the foundation of what is now EA Canada. His final role at the company, before leaving, was as worldwide president of studios.

Although he has experience of handling high profile franchises including The Sims, Need for Speed and SSX, Mattrick’s exact role at Microsoft is unclear. His role is not full-time, and he will be based in Vancouver rather than Microsoft’s Redmond offices.

The Wall Street Journal article quotes Microsoft’s Peter Moore as saying that Mattrick will assist with “a broad array of tasks including helping [Microsoft’s] own game studios", indicating that Mattrick's long development and production history are likely to be utilized to increase efficiencies.

Ailing Wii?

2007-02-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

Jason Harman said...

Aaron, Here's a question for you to answer next blog:

Computer And Video Games asks the tough question: is the Wii's magic gone? After the flurry of excitement around the launch, lackluster ports and a persistent inability for Nintendo to keep units on the shelves has made it hard for gamers to sustain their enthusiasm for the system. It doesn't help that most of the good games slated for this year won't be out for months. In some cases, there's doubt they'll even make it out this year: Reggie Fils-Aime appears to be backpedaling on Metroid Prime 3 by Christmas, which would be a shame. GigaGamez has additional commentary. Are you still as excited about the Wii as you were when it launched?

http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=158325
________________________________________________

Here's a link to the most recent article I've read regarding the sales numbers put up by the Wii. I think it's pretty foolish for any industry commentator to put their neck out and make any predictions at this point. I know a lot are reserving comment cause it's just too up in the air to tell. So many systems of done well at launch, like the Wii has, and then tanked in the next few months due to problems with 3rd party support, etc. Sega's swan-song Dreamcast is the best example of this kinda stuff, although there were a good deal of other factors contributing to its early demise as well.

As the linked article above shows however, the Wii, when compared to Nintendo's previous two machines, is holding its own pretty well. In addition... for the first time in two console generations, it's outperforming both of the other titans by a considerable margin. Another major difference which separates the Wii's initial performance from that of the N64 and the Gamecube, is that Nintendo is beginning to attract more 3rd party support in it's first few months, rather than lose it as has been it's tradition. And remember, Nintendo is a company which over the last decade has held it's own based on the merits of it's own software, and in a market where its two largest competitors have the financial capacity to post record losses for not just months, but years, just to stay in the game.

I certainly can't say that the Wii will come out on top as the market dominator over the other two systems. What I can say, is considering the circumstances and challenges faced by Nintendo, they're certainly doing the best they can with what they've got.

The Green Gamer's Choice

2007-02-23T12:24:00.000-08:00

Some interesting stats on power consumption of each console. And yes... yet another testament to the engineering feat accomplished by Nintendo in their latest console - not so much in terms of pure hardware power, but rather in terms of the physical layout of the internal components, durability, etc...

I'd be very interested to see what a cheaper, re-packaged, downsized version of the Wii would look like should one ever be released. I can certainly see a new version incorporating CD and DVD playing capability, perhaps some expanded internal flash memory capacity... but in terms of the over shape of the package, I can't see a lot that could be improved upon. And that is extremely rare for the the first edition of any video game console.

Warrantendo

2007-02-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

Called up Nintendo today for the second repair-related issue since I bought my Wii on launch day. This time, about my Wii-mote which seemed to have lost its ability to register motion.

Got put straight through to a tech person in Richmond immediately. He gave me some instructions which basically amounted to: "give it a good smack." Apparently, there's a gyro of some sort, not unlike the ball in an old pre-optical mouse which can get jammed if sent through particular motions. The quick remedy is to smack your controller around a bit in order to "dislodge it"

I was a bit hesitant to hit it too hard, since I didn't want to end up with a controller in worse shape than it was. Couldn't seem to dislodge any gyros.

So the techie asked if I wanted to cruise over to Nintendo headquarters, where'd they'd take a look at my Wii-mote, and swap it out right there if it couldn't be fixed. Would have normally been put off by the drive out to Richmond, but had always wanted to get a look inside that big Nintendo building I'd always seen off the highway, so I went for a drive.

Got there, and was greeted by a larger-than-life sized statue of Link at the door. The techie I talked to on the phone came up to the front desk. synced my wii-mote to their console, and gave it a good smack. Sure enough... that had been the problem.

"Looks like I didn't hit if hard enough," I said.

"No worries," he shrugged. "Go ahead and keep those batteries I put in there for you. Hope the trip out here was worth it... even if to just look around the building."

Can't praise Nintendo customer service enough. Which is pretty bizarre, since most gigantic companies these days are a nightmare to deal with if you're looking for anything other than a profit-generating service from them. I've now had to repair one controller, and replace my entire Wii console, and I've never found Nintendo to be anything but immediately responsive, unquestioning, and completely lacking in bureaucratic red-tape.

Now if only Telus or BC Ferries could take a couple lessons from their book.

Wii Controller Certainly not Indestructable

2007-02-18T19:40:00.000-08:00

Been a pretty shitty day for home electronics and schtuff.

Decided to update some of the light switches and power sockets throughout the house today. Have been doing so since we moved in periodically with a good deal of success. Today however, was a different story. Replaced a combo outlet, (switch and outlet) and when I flicked the breaker back on... discovered that I had a short which prevented the breaker from being re-set. Have hauled the whole works out about three or four times, and even called my dad for some advice... and nothing has worked. goddammit.

Went upstairs to blow off some steam on Wii boxing... and during the 2nd round of my third fight, my right hand froze as the Wii-mote locked up. Not sure if there's something internal broken, or what, but I guess I now get a second shot at testing out Nintendo's warranty service. Shouldn't be any problems if it's as smooth as my first go-around.

Corny Cornell

2007-02-18T19:24:00.000-08:00

Friend James called me up the other day and left a message on my machine that Cornell had quit Audioslave. I had heard as much on CFOX a day earlier. So I called James back up and said...

"Yeah man... I heard that on the radio the other night. and uh... I'm not sure anyone cares."

Honestly, I'm not. I liked Audioslave more than any of my friends did, and I don't even really care that much. Maybe cause it doesn't come as much of a surprise. They haven't released an album in quite a while, except for the solo acoustic Cornell put out last year.

And then there's Rage's Reunion this April.

Can you spell: "G-O-O-D, L-U-C-K, F-U-K-K-O" ?

2006-12-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

If you read this within 2 days of me posting it, you'll have the limited time opportunity to plunk down a minimum bid of $25,000 bones for some dude's 20 some-odd year collection of time-well-wasted.

That's right, for merely the price of a couple year's tuition at one of BC's prestigious post-secondary institutions, you too can have your name in the running for a relatively respectable collection of video games assembled throughout the last couple of decades.

But wait! 25 G's not enough for you to blow? hell... for an additional 50, you can have you're very own unopened Nintendo Wii! Why wait a couple weeks for the opportunity to pick one up at Best Buy for a mere $279 (CAD) when you can add $50,000 to the initial $25,000 you just parted with, and have one this week!
(please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery)

But don't let my super-smooth words move you into a bidding frenzy. Hear it straight from the owner's mouth:

"As this collection is invaluable to me, I'm starting the bidding at $25,000 (Since I bought everything when it was brand new, I'm estimating that I've spent well over $30,000 over the years in gathering this collection)."

Apparently the beginning of the end for an "Invaluable" collection starts at $25,000.

Still no bids as of 5:00 pm on December 15th, 06.

PS3 Boss gets "Shuffled"

2006-12-04T00:45:00.000-08:00

Looks like Sony's finally figuring out what I could have told them months ago. The PS3 is gonna end up costing them more money than they can ever recover before the bean counters begin calling for the axe.

In a move Sony says will "strengthen" their management team, Playstation brainman, Ken Kutaragi found himself laterally promoted, as the higher ups decided some fresh blood should take over their gaming division.

Here's a few reasons why this spells desperation on the part of Sony.

The PS3 hasn't yet been out for a month, and already the key stickhandler has been sidelined
Kutaragi isn't just your average game-illiterate, business-savvy Playstation executive. He's essentially the founder of the Playstation. It was good ol' Ken who after nintendo pulled the plug on the Sony-produced CD add-on to the Super Famicom (Super NES,) tirelessly hounded his conservative exec-set to carry on with the project. The eventual outcome was the original Sony Playstation.
Kutaragi has commanded Sony's gaming division on all three systems since their entry into the market. He's in many ways, the reason Sony unseated both Sega and Nintendo as industry tyrants at a time when there was no other competitor.

After a record like this, you don't simply move Mr. Playstation to another department and say you're "strengthening" you management team in doing so. This is a guy who was widely favoured to take over Sony's entire operation. And now he's been tossed out of the house ken built.

If this isn't a sign that Sony's on the ropes, then I don't know what is.

So far, no new shipments of PS3's have been made available, and Sony has barely been able to get out half of what they projected was necessary for this period.

Nintendo on the other hand, is claiming it's on track towards it's 4 million unit target by the end of this year. Nintendo president, Reggie Fils-Aime was quoted last week as saying, "We sell everything we make, so it's simply a manufacturing thing now." If Nintendo is able to hit the 4 million unit mark by Xmas 2006, they will have sold over half of what it took the Xbox 360 over a year to do... in just over two months!

Meanwhile, Sony lurches on with major financial losses from their gaming division, added to a $180 million loss from last summer over their faulty battery pack fiasco. Only their cellular phone manufacturing division, 'Sony-Ericsson seems able to keep them afloat.

So will Sony eventually leave the gaming hardware industry with the PS3 as their last system?

Gamers like me can only hope.

It sure would be just cookies for bullying Lik-Sang into submission like they did.

No, I'm not always playing video games

2006-12-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I even take the skytrain. I prefer not to lately, only to justify the money I spend on gas and car insurance... but the recent snowfall in Vancouver, which is just now beginning to melt away, made it impossible for our snow-tire-lacking car to emerge from the driveway.

As such, we were forced to take the skytrain to the BC Fed convention being held down at the Canada Place convention Centre. Apparently everyone else in Vancouver had the same idea, as six trains passed before we were able to force ourselves onboard. One station down from us, Broadway, Skypigs were holding people down on the ground level because the number of people on the station platform was reaching unsafe levels.

Each previously automated train had to be run by a driver since the snow on the tracks had short circuited the computer-control.

Here's is the view from behind the operator's head as we chugged along at half-speed towards our destination:

And for those of you who really like Sky-trains and snow... here's an extended video to music by some other Vancouverite I'v never met.

Sony is Satan

2006-12-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

Sony's given me a few reasons to hate them in the past... most too trivial to put into words. But now the bastards have gone too far.

By suing the Hong Kong's online retail darling of the gaming industry (Lik-Sang) out of business for the most hypocritical reasons imaginable, they've cemented their position in video game history as the nastiest, most mean-spirited game-corporation of this decade, (perhaps all-time.)

Real video-game histiographers, (I totally just made that word up) might argue that Jack Tramiel's treatment of his Atari staff in the early eighties, or Nintendo's hard-nosed retail-exclusivity tactics later that decade, provide strong competition to Sony for the coveted title of: Sludge-Sucking Game-Rat of All-Time; but when you type the words: "Sony Sucks" into a search engine... you start to realize that Sony really is in a class all to it's own. And it extends past their video game department.

I've assembled a few articles with which you may pass the time.

Reasons why Sony's Audio Division sucks
Reasons why not to buy a Sony Computer
Reasons why Sony's Customer Service is a Farce
Reasons why "Warranty" in Sony-speak means: "You get to pay for it again fukker!"
Reasons why the "Sony" name is no longer associated with "Quality"

and best of all... what you can expect after plunking down a cool $700 for Sony's new "state-of-the-art" system.

Combine the above video with many of the experiences consumers have had with Sony's unique definition of "warranty," and it becomes clear how buying a PS3 is paramount to putting $700 worth of toonies (Canadian $2 coin) into a gigantic fruitcake in hopes that it'll taste better at christmas time.

This isn't to say that Nintendo's hardware is perfect and without flaw. It's just more realistically priced. After paying under $300 for the base system, I began experiencing a few hiccups in the Wii's operation, (see here for system review.) After a week of minor load problems, and strange disc drive clicking, I phoned up Nintendo and explained the problem. The operator agreed to send me a new console in the mail, no questions asked... and then explained that they would allow me 21 days to transfer data between the consoles, and send the defective one back. Ironically, all of the earlier malfunctions in the initial console have ceased, and I wonder if it was just experiencing some settling pains out of the box, and has since found it's groove.

In any case, here's a photo to prove Nintendo sent the console, (which arrived on my doorstep 3 days after I requested it)

I'll certainly post an update if the replacement process doesn't go smooth with Nintendo.

In the meantime... sign this petition titled The Case Between Sony and Lik-Sang.com

Warning: "only for complete gaming geeks"

2006-11-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Read an interesting take on the commercial prospects of the video game console I just camped out in the rain to shell out hard earned dollars for. Thar article is HERE

My response is below:
_________________________

I'd disagree that the gaming industry isn't ready for a major change.

I fit the demographic of the average gamer you describe almost perfectly. I'm a white, middle class male, nearing 30 years of age. I played a lot of games from the late eighties, to the late nineties. The last major systems I bought was the Sony Playstation and the Sega Dreamcast. Like a lot of people in my age category, who have followed the gaming industry for a couple decades, I became extremely jaded after getting stuck with a large number of Sega systems that went nowhere. That experience certainly turned me into a more cautious game consumer (particularly in terms of hardware.) And while it may have been Sega's poor hardware management that turned people like me off, I think there's a lot of folks who never saw enough innovation from Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft to plunk down a serious investment for any of their systems.

The gaming industry has gone through a lot of changes since the Ataris and Coleco Visions of the 70's and eighties. One of the main changes is the budgets attributed to games now compared to then. Obviously now, they are much larger, some even outdoing the average movie production budget. But with this kind of capital expenditure on game production, and a much more saturated market of competitors, innovation suffers, because investors are far more likely to fund a game that has a "tried-and-true" formula as opposed to something completely new and adventurous. No one wants to fund something refreshing and innovative, when they can maximize their investment with the latest shiny FPS. And sure people are buying these games. The vast share of marketing in the gaming industry is going towards promoting these carbon copies. And without the same climate of development that we had in the early days of the gaming industry, when maverick programmers bucked conventional trend and come out with innovative milestones like M.U.L.E, or Starflight... large software developers are going to continue to go with the "safe-bet" games like Call-of-Duty 27, and "Heroes-Without-Arms 16."

In many ways, this is what has lead to recent growth in interest of retro games. Many gamers in my demographic ARE getting tired of the same old FPS, survival thriller, or racing/sports sim - regardless of how shiny it is. To a lot of us... graphics really DON"T matter as much as the fun-factor of a game. A friend of mine at work who's in his 40's, and has even more experience watching the industry than I do recently said to me...

"You know, if I wanted to watch something so real I thought it was a movie... I'd watch a freakin' movie." Nintendo's "Ice Hockey" for the NES, and EA's "NHLPA hockey" for the Genesis in 1992 aren't classics because we couldn't tell if we were watching a real hockey game or not... they rocked, and continue to rock cause they're so freakin' fun.

In many ways, I think it took Nintendo getting battered from the undisputed leader of the industry 20 years ago, to third place today, to figure this out. If it were still profitable for Nintendo to pump out cookie-cutter games like Microsoft and Sony do... they would. They're in a unique position right now, however where they've got a lot of talent left over from their heyday, combined with a waning presence in a market they helped shape, which has forced them to take some innovative risks.

Does this insure Nintendo's reclaimation of the gaming industry's throne? Sure doesn't.

Both Sony and Microsoft have a lot of money to throw around. Both can afford to take losses for years, just to starve competitors out and dominate by attrition. Right now, Nintendo has to rely on new ideas and innovation... and that only spells positive things for gamers.

I think the Wii will sell better than the GameCube for the same reason a game like Guitar Heroes is such a mad success today. I also think it's a bit of a longshot to assume that Nintendo will overtake either Microsoft or Sony in terms of market share during the lifetime of the three most recent consoles.

But most importantly, I think both Sony and Microsoft will find themselves emulating a lot of innovations Nintendo has developed in an attempt to keep Nintendo in third place.

The "Wii" Report - Day 2

2006-11-20T12:51:00.000-08:00

So after at least a good 6-7 hours of near-straight game playing, tweaking, wire-juggling and general fekkin' around, I can give an initial report on how the Wii measures up to expectations.

It certainly hasn't been without it's fair share of hiccups, at least in my experience, and to mitigate some of the challenges I've had, I should mention that after spending a bit of time on the Wii-user forums, there are a tonne of people out there who haven't had any trouble getting their system to work properly at all.

Mine, on the other hand, has crashed a total of three times since I bought it yesterday. This is basically the equivalent to the old "reset-requiring freezes" the old school Nintendo would experience from time to time. Every console is basically a little computer, (even the old Ataris) and from time to time... computers will crash for any number of reasons. As computers get more complicated, there are infinitely more ways in which they can crash.

The Wii handles a crash very similar to how a computer would. Ideally, if it hasn't had a complete meltdown, an error screen will pop up with instructions on how to deal with the situation, in my case... it's told me to pull the damned game out, and turn the machine off and on.
I know that in at least two of the three crashes so far, the system failed when trying to load my new Zelda disc after I had already been playing around with some of the other channel features on the Wii. It seems to have trouble switching gears from online related stuff... directly over to a game. Don't know yet whether this is specific to the Zelda disc... or if it's a system related problem.

The majority of my headaches so far, have been in getting the online features configured. Nintendo doesn't have as much online-capability experience as the other two big-competitors, and it shows somewhat with Wii online compatibility... which is a bit picky for my liking.

I've attempted a few different ways of getting my Wii online. The first was the most common... through the existing wireless network in my apartment. This proved more difficult than I had hoped, as the Wii failed to pick-up on the network. I was hesitant to blame this on the Wii right away, however, as I've had trouble in the past with receivers recognizing my wireless router, I suspected the culprit may in fact be my foreign-language speaking wireless Belkin router. I say foreign language speaking... because I'm yet to find a non-Belkin product that can communicate with it.

My assumption ended up being correct, since after checking the Nintendo support page, it turns out that my router is in fact incompatible with the Wii.

Plan B entailed heading out to Future Shop to purchase Nintendo's USB WiFi adapter, which was initially developed for the Nintendo DS handheld system, but is said by Nintendo to be able to convert your PC's internet signal into a wireless wave for the Wii as well.

After having no trouble installing the adapter's software, I was devastated to see that my Wii failed to recognize its signal as well. Perhaps I'm giving Nintendo too much benefit of the doubt here... but I'm still attributing the problem to my router, which I suspect is somehow impeding the USB adapter's ability to send out a readable signal. The only solution I've been able to come up with is to go out and get a new router which is listed on Nintendo's compatibility chart.

All was not lost on the online front however... as one of my more generous anonymous neighbours was unknowingly kind enough to provide a wireless connection which my Wii was able to recognize. After many untimely disconnections, and a series of Wii-generated error codes, I was finally able to scrape the mandatory system updates off the Nintendo server, only to find out that two of their Wii services, (the News and Weather broadcasters) are not yet in operation... and that the third online service, (Opera-based Internet browsing) will not be available until next year... and even then, not without a one-time fee for the software! Not something I was delighted to hear.

As for the games... I've played through the included "Wii Sports," as well as my copy of "Zelda: Twilight Princess." The sports game is pretty much as enjoyable as one would have expected. At least until the novelty of the controller wears off... if ever.

But if one positive thing can be said about the Wii hardware... it should definitely be said about the controllers. I was absolutely amazed at how forgiving their operation is. I had expected a fairly tight range of movement, with lots of hiccups in their performance. Though they certainly aren't flawless, (golf clubs swinging while you're on the back-swing, etc) I was amazed at their responsiveness. Especially considering that I didn't have them operating in the most ideal of conditions.

We've got a digital projector beaming the Wii's image on one of our blank white walls. Makes for a great display, but makes it impossible to stand directly in front of the screen while playing without blacking out the picture with your shadow. Mounting the projector to the ceiling would solve the problem were we willing to shell out the dough for a contraption that would enable it to hang properly off our slanted vaulted ceiling surface. So we've had to devise a method of standing a little off center. This creates a problem with the Wii motion detector which is allowed to be either above or below your display, but certainly meant to be positioned directly in it's center, and pointed out forward. It's also suppose to attach directly to the display. Our display, of course, has no mass to connect to, and it's on a shelf below the bottom of the picture, and tilted to the left to catch our off-centre movements - two absolute no-no's in the Wii setup book... but so far, we've had very little problem with accuracy or responsiveness. A testament to their design to be sure.

In all the Wii sports games save boxing, the controls are well mapped out and intuitive. The golf makes sense... the tennis is fun, the baseball swing is amazingly accurate, and bowling is an absolute gas. Boxing, as the reviews said in advance, really is just a jumble of unresponsive punches, and poorly timed flailings. Probably not a formula that can't be fixed with more time in a follow-up version, however... and let's hope they get to that. A good Boxing game could very well be one of the most adaptable and rewarding applications for the Wii.

More after Day 3.

Wii! I got one!

2006-11-19T09:42:00.000-08:00

Thought to myself last night... "alright... BestBuy and Future shop both have the most systems available, but they're gonna be gong shows. People will be showing up like... yesterday."

And sure enough... that's the way it was. Cruised by BestBuy at 8pm November 18th, and about 15 people had already gathered by the door.

Talked to an employee who said it still wasn't nearly as bad as three days earlier when folks began lining up 2 days in advance for the PS3.

So I could have started there, laid some roots, and been guranteed a system after a good night's wait.

But I'm getting too old for that shit. I wanted to go home. drink some beer, watch a movie, read more Wii reviews, catch a few winks, and find a way to get a Wii even after all that laziness.

Not having the funds, nor the moral ineptitude to pay a homeless person upwards of $500 bucks to wait in line for me, (as many reportedly did for the PS3) I decided to make stop by Superstore on Grandview and case the situation.

"We've only got 15 in stock," said the clerk, :on a first come first serve basis."

But there wasn't anyone waiting outside.

Nor was there when we swung by at 1:30 am on our way back from some midnight poutine on the drive.

So after a bit of discussion, we decided to take our chances, grab some shut-eye, and see what the early morning held in store.

Alarm fired off at 5:00am, and after a couple good snoozes, we were on the road.

Pulling into the Superstore parking lot minutes later, I was immediately impressed with the 12 folks in front of me who had devised the same low-key plan.

Here was a collection of calculating folks. Some looked like they had been there for some time, (deluxe lawn-chairs, time-passing laptops, and even the odd heat lamp.)

But most looked like they knew they had struck the right balance between not having to spend an entire night outside, and still getting their system, day-one.

So number 13 in line were I... two away from the limit.

The three young fellas in front of me said they had been there since 3:30 am... and they were starting to look a little fatigued.

3 more guys showed up 20 minutes after I arrived. We got chatting, and it soon donned on them that only two of them were going to go home with a system. That problem ended up getting solved twice over, as the three fellas in front of me were only getting one system between them... and again when the clerk came out at 7:00 announcing that there were in fact 18 systems in stock.
A few late-comers at the end of the line went home as the clerks handed out 18 numbered cards and told us we could take off and come back at 9:00am when they opened. One fella put out an offer to buy someone's card, but when when he turned down the only offer of $200, it looked like the order was going to stay the same.

For our part, we went to Bino's for breakfast, card in pocket, which was now numbered 11. So we were well within the limit.

After breaky, we returned to Superstore by quarter after 8... just to be safe... and by then, another sizable line had gathered.

Apparently no one bothered to tell these poor souls that all the systems were already spoken for.

A clerk finally came out at about twenty to nine, to announce that, without a numbered card, no Wii could be had... however, no one left.

By quarter to nine, pretty much everyone from the original line had appeared and began to congregate around the doors. Those without cards seemed even more determined to get a Wii... and some seemed convinced that the entire "numbered-card" scheme was a hoax to convince them to give their spot up in line.

Much to their displeasure, at 9:00, a door was opened up a few feet wary from the one the new latecomers had lined up at... and it appeared at first to be a free-for-all, as customers elbowed their way in... some hopping shopping carts and checkouts to get to the electronics department first.

Those of us with cards, however, strolled in casually, and took our place in the separate line set up for those who had endured the cold, the rain, and a good portion of the night before to get our new Nintendo.

Within 15 minutes, the system was sold out... and despite the large number of disappointed folks, no riots took place.

The final price tag? With a Wii system, the new Zelda game, two extra controllers, (one of them sold in two separate pieces) the entire thing came to $490 and change (CDN) Still well under the before tax price of the microsoft system, and certainly Sony's new PS3

So now on to the gaming!

So Hey Ekman... Do You Like B.A.?

2006-11-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

The Slocan

2006-11-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

Hit the Slocan up this weekend. Tend not to go there as often as most of the greasy spoons we frequent since it's a touch outta the neighbourhood.

Been around for years though, and is a commonly known place among the more gray-haired friends of ours.

Price ain't the hottest, service is going downhill somewhat, but only cause it's gettin' freakin' busy on the weekends, and the management isn't brining in new staff to keep up.

food's great... too many cops though

More on this when the "Vancouver Greasy Spoon Database" gets set up.

Buddy Dances

2006-11-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

Buddy Dancing at the apartment. Guess who.

No reading lips kids.

U-Brew

2006-10-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Just came back from the local U-Brew. Nat and I bottled exactly 70 bottles of a pilsner.

Not sure how they taste yet, as we elected to let them carbonate naturally in the bottle. This'll take a little less than two weeks... then it's bottoms up!

Will let you know how they taste.

We got it done at a place down the street called "Beyond the Grape" 2603 Kingsway in Vancouver. 604-437-7100. Guy named Bradley runs the show, he's really cool, and the whole thing cost us $64!

Job out at Britannia Mines

2006-09-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

:: Click on all photos to enlarge them ::
(captions below each set of pics)

Started work out at Britannia Mines last Saturday. We're replacing the tin siding and roof on the old 1921 building. For those who haven't seen it, it's built like a set of stairs up the mountain. A small town surrounds it, and it's about 10 minutes out of Squamish.
Looking up at it in this picture, you should be able to see the parts we have and haven't done. The grey-silversh siding is the new tin... the old beige-rust colour stuff higher up is yet to be covered up.
The site attracts at least a hundred tourists per day, but apparently they haven't actually been allowed on tours through the entire mine since the eighties.
One of the journemen I work with named "Frenchie" took me on a tour of it today. We've got all the safety gear required for a tour included in our work equipment, so it wasn't a problem. Harnesses, ropes, hard hats, boots, etc.

Here's a series of sequential view shots from the roof we were on today.

Here's a shot of the catwalk we take into the top of the mine, and the somewhat unusable portion of the catwalk on the other side of the structure.

Shot of the interior of the upper floor. Bar across the centre is a 30 tonne crane

Frenchie on a ladder

Nearly three hundred stairs to the top. Old rock car tracks on the left side

Down the same chute

Frenchie tied in.

From outside on the roof, looking in.

Yours truly... tied in...

Frenchie at the old rock-car controls. "One lever for up... two for down."

Mines from the outside. Bottom three layers finished... upper three layers yet to go.

Night-O-Drinky

2006-09-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

In the immortal words of Alan Jackson...

"We dropped em' off early, but we didn't go home."

Mike and I takin' Mel and James home from Stephen and Michelle's housewarmer... prolly woulda been sound prudence to have followed their lead... but the 40-pounder of Havana Club back at the party seemed to have other ideas.

camping in Lac la Juenne

2006-09-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

Spent Labour Day weekend between Merrit and Kamloops at a provincial campsite called Lac la Juenne.

Pine beetle infestation has decimated so many of their trees, so we ended up abondoning our first site selection for darker one on the second day on account of the lack of shade.

As always, Drusilla came with us, and we were joined by Mike and Rosa on the final evening.

Drusilla was particularly shy on the first couple nights, but soon joined in the effort to scare up some campsite grub...

Not to be outdone, Mike attempts to save us from the dinner monotony of Dru's squirrel's and chipmunks

And after a hard day's hunt, we decided to take a dunk.

New Cave

2006-07-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

Got word that our application for our dream apartment went through today, which was a big thing for us, since there were a shitload of applicants.

And when I say "dream" apartment, I mean it in a fairly loose manner. Dream apartment within our price category. As in... it's split among two levels, two bedrooms, dishwasher, in-suite washer and dryer, and a sizable deck. Across the street from a beer and wine, and far more square feet than we're accustomed to.

All for under $900, which in Vancouver, is a bloody steal.

Pretty stoked about it. You're all invited to the housewarming... whenever that is. That's a pretty safe open invitation to make, since no one reads this blog.

Car smacks

2006-06-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

Un-fekkin' believable.

Hit a car last Thursday trying to turn left. Clearly my fault, so having to deal with ICBC over that issue. Claim hasn't even been completed yet, and I'm out with a camera man and reporter from a major Canadian TV station, and the camera-man backs the station-vehicle into the side of my car, cause all the television equipment they've packed into his back-end has obstructed his rear-vision.

I've been in some bizarre situations with the media over the years, but being interviewed by two people with whom I was just involved in a smack-up, minutes before - pretty much takes the cake.

Back to ICBC we go.

Slumlord

2006-06-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

Little video I did today for a killer Vancouver band called New Years Resolution

One day, someone with real talent will come along and do a video which does this band justice.

enjoy in any case