What this is about, creating your own projects, applications or games and there's a lot of great homebrew stuff around. Getting set up for this does allow you to play pirated games though which isn't so great for the industry and a reason for bad press on the home brew scene.
Cyclo DS is my choice for cartridge which I got from Abotcity. The reason, this is updated on a regular basis and it auto patches, which means you don't have to mess around with application roms, stick them on a micro SD card and away they go, it is also nicely made and can handle larger than 2GB cards. I use a 8GB card that I got from Newegg.
Apart from being updated regulary, what makes this the best card to use, you don't have to stick your roms in the root of the card, you can stick them in folders so you can organise your apps how you like and stick photos and media files on there and play them with a media player.
Okay, your set up, now what, a couple sites to start you off are NDS Homebrew and NDS Hive. You'll find applications ranging from audio tools and painting tools to maps, weather tools and other apps that use your wifi connection as well as home made games.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Child Safety Gate
Well it's gotten to that point where we really needed one for our crawling tot.
Our criteria was based on:-
-Recommendations from friends/family
-Cost
-Ease of use and installation; not requiring it to be hardware fixed because we rent
With that in mind, we went with Safety 1st Perfect Fit Gate - $35 so the price was good considering how expensive some are, also it is a sturdy gate, not the best looking but it can be pressure fixed against the door frame.
Over all it works as a safety barrier, but as a opening gate, not so good because you do need to use the hardware for that to work, screwing it into the wall and using the mounts, which does take the point of the pressure fit away some what.
The auto fit system which seems good on paper, and when watching it work, does seem to work well, but it is only on one side of the gate so I can see how this might not work so well for people who have base board heat on both sides of a corridor or other things that could be in the way against the wall.
It is also quite heavy too, so definitely make sure you have it installed securely.
Over all, I think it works quite well and worth the money, though if we had our own house and could install a proper gate I would perhaps look at another option.
Our criteria was based on:-
-Recommendations from friends/family
-Cost
-Ease of use and installation; not requiring it to be hardware fixed because we rent
With that in mind, we went with Safety 1st Perfect Fit Gate - $35 so the price was good considering how expensive some are, also it is a sturdy gate, not the best looking but it can be pressure fixed against the door frame.
Over all it works as a safety barrier, but as a opening gate, not so good because you do need to use the hardware for that to work, screwing it into the wall and using the mounts, which does take the point of the pressure fit away some what.
The auto fit system which seems good on paper, and when watching it work, does seem to work well, but it is only on one side of the gate so I can see how this might not work so well for people who have base board heat on both sides of a corridor or other things that could be in the way against the wall.
It is also quite heavy too, so definitely make sure you have it installed securely.
Over all, I think it works quite well and worth the money, though if we had our own house and could install a proper gate I would perhaps look at another option.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
IGDA - Board Elections
The 2009 election for Board of Directors is finally open to IGDA members.
If your a member, it's worth voting for someone who shares your views or will do something you believe in.
The list of nominations are quite large and there's a lot of information to shift though.
My criteria, someone who is in the industry rather than out of the industry, who is able to try and improve what the IGDA stands for and what they hope to accomplice and make it have more impact for people in the industry with less student focus. I also would like someone who isn't based in America to help give the board a little more balance and a view from aboard. Not having a stupid photo is a bonus, this is supposed to be serious after all and you are supposed to be representing and helping the industry.
Adam Martin would be my first choice
Gordon Bellamy a second choice
Jared Eden a third choice
If your a member, it's worth voting for someone who shares your views or will do something you believe in.
The list of nominations are quite large and there's a lot of information to shift though.
My criteria, someone who is in the industry rather than out of the industry, who is able to try and improve what the IGDA stands for and what they hope to accomplice and make it have more impact for people in the industry with less student focus. I also would like someone who isn't based in America to help give the board a little more balance and a view from aboard. Not having a stupid photo is a bonus, this is supposed to be serious after all and you are supposed to be representing and helping the industry.
Adam Martin would be my first choice
Gordon Bellamy a second choice
Jared Eden a third choice
Thursday, February 5, 2009
More Boon Products
Following on from the Boon Spoon which is awesome, we went and got more of their product line up.
Fluid - A toddler cup, nice and chunky, easy to hold and doesn't spill so in theory should be a great cup for the baby to get the hang of, but the tip is a bit unwieldy so baby isn't finding it that easy to drink out of, shame.
Catch Bowl - This is a great little bowl with a lip that is supposed to catch dropped food, there is also a sucker on the base that is supposed to keep it securely held in place on the table. The reality is, the sucker doesn't actually hold the bowl down that well and nor does the catcher actually catch the food that well, it's a little to flexible and the baby just pushes it down. This also isn't machine washable, but it is easy to wipe clean.
Benders - This is a spoon and spork combination, the heads bend quite easily so that the baby can hold them in either hand, which ever they are most comfortable with. These are great, they are easy to hold, not sharp and the head has a nice dip that allows the food to slide off into the babies mouth nice and easily. This is a superb product!
Snack Ball - We thought this would be a fun little container to hold the snacks. The reality is, it is a bit rubbish. It's a round sphere, no dimples or rubber pads to hold it in place so it rolls all over the place when you put it down. Also the sliding top that opens isn't all that secure so it is quite easy for this to slip open and dump the snacks in your pocket. Bit of a disappointment.
There are other products in the line up to check out, more for the toddler age and we will probably give them a go later on.
For now, we highly recommend the Boon Spoon and the Benders, some of the best small baby purchases we've made. They are available all over the place too which is handy.
Fluid - A toddler cup, nice and chunky, easy to hold and doesn't spill so in theory should be a great cup for the baby to get the hang of, but the tip is a bit unwieldy so baby isn't finding it that easy to drink out of, shame.
Catch Bowl - This is a great little bowl with a lip that is supposed to catch dropped food, there is also a sucker on the base that is supposed to keep it securely held in place on the table. The reality is, the sucker doesn't actually hold the bowl down that well and nor does the catcher actually catch the food that well, it's a little to flexible and the baby just pushes it down. This also isn't machine washable, but it is easy to wipe clean.
Benders - This is a spoon and spork combination, the heads bend quite easily so that the baby can hold them in either hand, which ever they are most comfortable with. These are great, they are easy to hold, not sharp and the head has a nice dip that allows the food to slide off into the babies mouth nice and easily. This is a superb product!
Snack Ball - We thought this would be a fun little container to hold the snacks. The reality is, it is a bit rubbish. It's a round sphere, no dimples or rubber pads to hold it in place so it rolls all over the place when you put it down. Also the sliding top that opens isn't all that secure so it is quite easy for this to slip open and dump the snacks in your pocket. Bit of a disappointment.
There are other products in the line up to check out, more for the toddler age and we will probably give them a go later on.
For now, we highly recommend the Boon Spoon and the Benders, some of the best small baby purchases we've made. They are available all over the place too which is handy.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Pixel Pushing
Those interested in Pixel pushing and the old school, there's a lot to chose from, especially free programs.
It's something well worth playing around with, especially handy if you are doing tile maps for hand held devices.
Tile Studio - This is a nice open source freebie
mtPaint - This is also open source and works well, just doesn't appear quite as polished.
fishEd - This is great and recently released as a freebie. Lots of resources here on the site too.
Graphics Gale - A nice little animation pixel program. Not free though, but not expensive either.
It's something well worth playing around with, especially handy if you are doing tile maps for hand held devices.
Tile Studio - This is a nice open source freebie
mtPaint - This is also open source and works well, just doesn't appear quite as polished.
fishEd - This is great and recently released as a freebie. Lots of resources here on the site too.
Graphics Gale - A nice little animation pixel program. Not free though, but not expensive either.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
January Boston Post Mortem
This months talk was given by Randy Smith who was the designer that helped shape the Thief series of games for Looking Glass and recently of EALA.
This was a talk he gave at the Montreal International Game Summit, called "Games Are Art, and What To Do About It."
It was interesting and to summarise the talk, he went into how game mechanics have progressed over the years talking of the parallel of how peoples comprehension of movies have grown, so you don't necessarily have to be blatantly obvious with every detail to show emotion or the progression of time, people know a day shot followed by a night shot in a movie means that time has progressed, even though they didn't when film first came about. This kind of evolution is happening and how it needs to continue so that the game users experience can be more engaging. The slap in the face uninteractive cut scenes, overly forced sound and facial animations to show emotion fail because they aren't engaging, they break the flow of the experience that takes the game player out of the continuity of the expeirence much like if a movie director had a statue roll up in the middle of the cinema at a particular moment to show an emotion would be breaking of the flow and feeling of the movie.
He also talked about design decisions and different genres of games, how best to engage emotion out of the game player so that they have a feeling of accomplishment, how they can care about an outcome so that they have the desire to replay the game in to see a different outcome. It all comes about asking the question "Why?" at every stage of the design process. What you think will be a good idea, question why. What way of having a game mechanic do such and such, question why. Continually questioning these decisions brings about a more layered mechanic to the game so that you can see and show how engaging and what responses you are looking for. It also can lead to interesting spin off thoughts that could lead to new avenues to explore.
This was a talk he gave at the Montreal International Game Summit, called "Games Are Art, and What To Do About It."
It was interesting and to summarise the talk, he went into how game mechanics have progressed over the years talking of the parallel of how peoples comprehension of movies have grown, so you don't necessarily have to be blatantly obvious with every detail to show emotion or the progression of time, people know a day shot followed by a night shot in a movie means that time has progressed, even though they didn't when film first came about. This kind of evolution is happening and how it needs to continue so that the game users experience can be more engaging. The slap in the face uninteractive cut scenes, overly forced sound and facial animations to show emotion fail because they aren't engaging, they break the flow of the experience that takes the game player out of the continuity of the expeirence much like if a movie director had a statue roll up in the middle of the cinema at a particular moment to show an emotion would be breaking of the flow and feeling of the movie.
He also talked about design decisions and different genres of games, how best to engage emotion out of the game player so that they have a feeling of accomplishment, how they can care about an outcome so that they have the desire to replay the game in to see a different outcome. It all comes about asking the question "Why?" at every stage of the design process. What you think will be a good idea, question why. What way of having a game mechanic do such and such, question why. Continually questioning these decisions brings about a more layered mechanic to the game so that you can see and show how engaging and what responses you are looking for. It also can lead to interesting spin off thoughts that could lead to new avenues to explore.
Friday, January 16, 2009
TrendNet TEW 424UB Wireless USB adapter - Update
An update to the original review of the TEW 424UB Wireless USB Adapter -
They released a new driver on the 16th of December 2008 -here
This driver seems to have fixed the device from BSOD'ing your system, especially when you lose a network connection, it is able to reconnect without needing a restart or causing a BSOD. Also doesn't seem to lose a network connection as often either, so a much needed driver update makes this a very solid and cheap wireless network adapter.
They released a new driver on the 16th of December 2008 -here
This driver seems to have fixed the device from BSOD'ing your system, especially when you lose a network connection, it is able to reconnect without needing a restart or causing a BSOD. Also doesn't seem to lose a network connection as often either, so a much needed driver update makes this a very solid and cheap wireless network adapter.
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