club ph34r v. n8

The greatest system no one played

2009-08-10T07:36:32Z

Nintendo has dominated the portable gaming market for 20 years and for good reason. Dated yet quality hardware, a slew of excellent games, and of course, the Nintendo name itself. Many contenders such as the Game Gear and Lynx popped up over the years to try and capture a piece of that market by offering bigger and better features. However, 10 years ago, one system actually followed the Game Boy's blueprint but sadly didn't last very long. That was the Neo Geo Pocket.

I've been on a portable gaming binge lately since I do must of my gaming during my commute these days. I've been a Nintendo guy in this area for most of life, but one system I always wanted was a Neo Geo Pocket Color. My first experience with it was a friend in high school who would show his off and let our posse play it. I was impressed with different facets of the little guy. The graphics in the games were bright and well animated, the controls felt really good, and the system itself looked pretty slick. I haven't been able to get one of my own until now. Check it out:

Here is the NGPC with Sonic Pocket Adventure pack-in fresh from eBay. The packaging is all pretty and silvery. All in all, the presentation is quite nice.

Here is the NGPC running Sonic Pocket Adventure. The game is actually like a remix of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It has similar Zones, and the same enemies, and even the same Special Stages. However, some added stuff include a boss fight with Knuckles and an updated version of Sonic to match his post-Sonic Adventure look. If you told my 10 year old self that someday I'd be able to play a perfect replication of a Sonic game on the go, my mind would have seriously exploded. The NGPC had a surprising number of fighting games, although I suppose it makes sense considering its creator is SNK, one of the top fighting game makers around.

Here's something that surprised me: the NGPC is the same size as my old friend, the Game Boy Color.

Sadly, the screen doesn't have backlight, but that's understandable considering even the Game Boy didn't get it until Game Boy Advance SP. One major feature that the NGPC has that the GB doesn't is an awesome clicky joystick. It feels fantastic and is perfect for the fighting games on the system. Plus there are some fine adaptations of franchise like Metal Slug and Pacman. The library was filled with great titles. Sadly, the Game Boys influence was so great that the NGPC was nothing but a mere blip on the radar, insuring that it'd be neglected by the general public. However, it is still relatively easy to find online and at decent prices, so if you have the chance, I recommend picking one up. I'll play you a few rounds of SNK vs Capcom.</lj-text>

Hrmm

2009-07-18T00:29:05Z

Ever come across a puzzle that really burrows into your head? You want to try and figure it out, but there are other things that need to be done. Whenever I try to push it out of my brain, I wonder if there's some kind of piece that I'm missing. It slowly gnaws at me. Probably something I shouldn't think about but still. Uhh... I'm not really sure where I'm going with this metaphor, but that is the state of my mind at the moment. Yeah.

Epik High in the hizouse!!

2009-05-20T17:57:15Z

Epik High and Far East Movement came to town last Friday, so I had to see them. Awesome show.

Nintendo DSi see what you did there

2009-04-20T02:08:43Z

I decided to take the plunge and drop some bones to get a Nintendo DSi. I have a Nintendo DS Phat (the old DS) but no Lite, so I thought I'd make the leap from one iteration to the next. I've been pretty impressed with it so far.

The screens are bigger and much brighter than my old DS, which is expected but still nice. There's a lot more to the new UI compared to the previous one. It's like the Wii browser with various boxes on-screen filled with different applications, except on the DSi, everything is on one line that can scroll left and right. Whenever you download something new from the DSi shop, it shows up as a present that fills up a slot on the bar. You then tap it to open it. Pretty awesome. It seems as if the DSi was designed with a broad audience in mind, outside of "hardcore" gamers. Everything is very bright, user friendly, and eye catching. Two interesting feature are the two cameras. One is on the cover to take pictures of things in front of you, and one is embedded in the hinge on the inside to take a picture of yourself. Thus you won't have to rely on the stupid holding-camera-at-arm's-length-to-try-and-take-a-picture-of-myself pose. I'm not really sure why Nintendo decided to include cameras, but eh, whatever. They're nifty to play around with, and the quality isn't too bad. The most intriguing addition is the DSi shop. There you can buy games using DS points, which are similar (and separate) from Wii points. Right now the selection is rather sparse, but if it can match what the Wii is doing with Virtual Console and Wii Ware, then it will be extremely cool. I look forward to the day when I can play Pokemon Red once again on a portable system.

(From Friday) Andres Torres is a fast man

Playing around with the "emote" filter where you can adjust your own facial expression. Yeah...

On another note, why is it so bloody hot?

Oh boy

2009-04-12T05:53:03Z

Kutner

2009-04-08T03:33:00Z

Hair pun

2009-03-31T05:47:03Z

Latest experiment: using shampoo only every other day. Reaction has been mixed thus far but shows some promise. More as the situation develops later.

Priorities

2009-03-13T06:06:10Z

Games currently playing:
Chrono Trigger DS
Street Fighter IV
Left 4 Dead
Fable II

Games to be played:
Final Fantasy III
Disgaea DS
Halo 3
Final Fantasy X (just got a PS2)
Final Fantasy X-2
Kingdom Hearts
Fallout
Fallout 2

*sigh* I probably shouldn't buy any more new games for a while.

They call him Bruce...

2009-03-10T07:16:20Z

formless like water by ~n8dawg on deviant ART

SUPERWONDERCON

2009-03-01T09:09:29Z

I went to Wondercon today and unlike last year, I spent the majority of my time sitting for the main panels learning about upcoming movies. There were some smaller panels and workshops I wanted to attend, but I think it was worth it to stick around to check out the previews. Even though I saw several, I'm just going to highlight a few. I missed the Watchmen panel though, which sucks because they showed the first 22 minutes of the movie!

Star Trek - JJ Abrams himself came out to talk about the movie, along with a few cast members. They showed the trailer that will air before Watchmen. I'm more of a Star Wars fan than a Star Trek fan, but what I've seen of the movie so far is very impressive. Looks like it'll be a blast.

9 - I never heard of this movie before Wondercon, but after seeing the preview, it looks promising. It's an animated flick starring Elijah Wood, who is a ragdoll named 9 living in a post-apocalyptic world. Yeah... it sounds weird, but it's pretty cool. I'm keeping my eye on it.

Terminator: Salvation - McG, the director, came out first to introduce the movie and the trailer that will be shown before Watchmen. Later the cast came out, and Common got the biggest reception by far. The director tried to get Christian Bale via phone, but his voicemail came up. The footage we saw was unfinished, so some of the effects weren't in yet or certain shots weren't cleaned up. It was still pretty easy to tell what was going on though. The action is pretty intense, and the movie looks to be pretty entertaining.

Up - This is the next Pixar movie and was hands-down my favorite of the previews, which probably comes of no surprise to anyone. Jonas Rivera, a producer on the film, and Pete Docter, the director, presented several clips and gave some insight on the movie. We saw about 18 minutes worth of material. I don't want to spoil any of the scenes for anyone, so I'll just say that there are a lot of surprises in the movie. It's freakin' hilarious, and the characters are immediately endearing. I was looking forward to the movie before, but now I can't wait for it to come out.

Now for random photos. Joy!
The legendary Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo. If you've never read a Usagi Yojimbo book, I highly recommend it. It may look like a funny animal book, but it's actually a pretty complex narrative based on Japanese folklore. I recommend the Eisner-winning Grasscutter for starters.

JJ Abrams!

Zachary Quinto

Creepy Elijah Wood picture

The director of Terminator Salvation McG tried to get Christian Bale on the phone to talk to us but got his voicemail instead.

Common

lemme show u my totally real pokymonz

2009-02-26T08:57:48Z

Get your copy of the extremely rare Pokemon Chaos Black here! So rare that I've never even heard of it before on any major gaming sites! Wait... why is Chaos from the Sonic Adventure series on the cover? Oh...

Legen-wait for it-dary

2009-02-26T07:15:27Z

I'm a pretty big fan of the Halo series. I played the heck out of the first two games in single and multiplayer. Since I didn't have an Xbox 360 until recently, I missed out on the initial Halo 3 hype. Newegg had the "limited" Legendary edition on sale last week, so I snatched it up. I came home yesterday and was greeted by this behemoth:

I wasn't really expecting the box to be this big. I'm pretty sure it took up half my room.

Here are the goodies that were inside.

This is some pretty cool stuff. Bungie put together a pretty good package.

Now where am I supposed to put this thing?

Good Times

2009-02-23T07:34:14Z

Last week I had a dream that I was showing old home movies for my friends. When I woke up, I felt like I needed to find the actual video containing footage of my younger self and covert it to DVD for better preservation. I brought it to Kino4U, this cool little Russian video rental store that also does video conversion. I picked up the DVD last night and watched some of it. I was promptly hit with a wave of feelings. I felt nostalgic for those innocent days of youth. Seeing all the old clothing and hairstyles everyone wore was hilarious. Seeing my parents interact with baby me made me want to have kids of my own. It's totally wild. Maybe I'll upload some of the footage some day. In the meantime, check out this screengrab of me chillin' in my old hood in Daly City.

lulz

2009-02-16T06:00:45Z

I started playing Chrono Trigger DS, and in Guardia Castle, one of the knights eating in the dining hall says, "Nom nom nom." Awesome.

moo

2009-01-27T08:19:52Z

The Lunar New Year is upon us. One of the traditions is to wear new clothes from head to toe. However, I only had one new article of clothing on me around this time:

What I really wanted to get was a Fighters jersey though.

そうか．．．

2009-01-23T07:09:11Z

Last week, one of my assignments was to create a group of ninja. This was the base photo upon which I worked:

Blech. I guess Ross is the place to go for all your ninja attire needs. I was told to put them in an "Eastern" city with "paper lanterns and curved roofs". Yeah...that wasn't going to happen. It's fortunate that the one artist on the team is Asian. (That's me)

This is the final result.

Not perfect, but considering what I had to work with, I think it turned out ok. The designs are a mixture of Hayabusa Ryu from Ninja Gaiden and Hotsuma from Shinobi. That leather jacket was a major annoyance. There wasn't much I could do with it that wouldn't take forever. Good times.

uh....

2009-01-21T04:22:43Z

o_O

random reviews all up in your face

2009-01-11T00:01:45Z

For the past month or so, two games have been taking up the bulk of my free time. Coincidentally, both are zombie themed: Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead. For whatever reason, I find myself drawn to zombie related media, even tough I have little interest in the horror genre. Alas, that's a whole other can of worms for another day. Despite the common thread between the games, they offer completely different but equally satisfying experiences. Time to break it down.

Dead Rising

Dead Rising is a 3rd person action game created by Capcom and puts you in the shoes and camera of Frank West, freelance photojournalist. He's covered wars, y'know. The story is very much in the vein of classic zombie flicks and is surprisingly allegorical. Frank goes to a mall in a sleepy Colorado town in search of a scoop of the century. Turns out, a zombie outbreak has hit the town, and it's up to Frank to uncover the truth behind the cause of within three days (not in real time, thankfully) when his ride comes to get him the heck out of there. Or not.

Y'see, Dead Rising is one of them open-ended sandbox games that are so popular with the kids these days. You can choose to ignore the main story and go about your merry way killing zombies and running through the mall. It's all up to you, although you'll miss out on a bunch of stuff if you do skip the story. There are hundreds of items from which to choose to use as a weapon. Everything from your requisite firearms and bludgeoning instruments to the more outlandish mannequins and Servbot/Kobun masks (which you can put on zombies!). As you play, you can also stop to take pictures, for which you'll be awarded Prestige Points (PP) that are pretty much Experience Points. You can accumulate PP via other methods too, such as defeating zombies and Psychopaths (the bosses in DR) or saving fellow survivors. With PP, Frank can level up and gain new moves and beefed up stats. There are tons of things to do and see, and you'll want to play through the game multiple times to get everything.

That brings me to the flaws of the game, which are few but very prominent. Multiple playthroughs are actually required if you want to level up to a decent number to make the game easier to manage. You'll find yourself restarting the game a lot at lower levels just so you can build up Frank's powers. Stats carry over through your save file. The problem is there's only ONE save file. Plus you can only save in certain places, the security room, which acts as a sort of home base, and restrooms (yeah...). If you screw up and miss a sidequest you wanted to catch, there's no going back. This is very frustrating in the beginning until you get the hang of it. More impatient gamers probably won't even bother with this and attempt to play through to complete the story.

Another thing is the system which alerts you of the sidequests (known as "Scoops"). Early on you befriend a security guard named Otis who will notify of you of major events or any Scoops via walkie-talkie. However, he always seems to call you at the most inopportune times, like when you're being attacked by a swarm of zombies. Once you take his call, you're pretty much defenseless as you try to listen to (actually read) what he has to say. You're easy pickings for any nearby zombies looking for a snack. If you're interrupted mid-call, he'll call back seconds later seconds later, scold you for hanging up, and start from the beginning of his message. I guarantee you will grow to hate Otis.

Despite these annoyances, Dead Rising is still a blast to play. There are so many unlockables, Easter Eggs, and cool things to discover. For instance, you can find a Mega Man helmet and unlock the Blue Bomber's tights, boots, and Mega Buster, so you can run around the mall as Mega Man himself. The game certainly has a lot of mileage and is very rewarding if you're patient enough. Plus, you get to kill tons of zombies. That should be reason enough to try the game. For those who don't have an Xbox, there is a Wii version in the works, as evidenced by this awesome commercial:

Wii folks get some improvements and additional features, although original features such as the 72 hour clock and photography feature will be omitted. There's no way the Wii will be able to display the same number of zombies as the Xbox 360 can, but if they're able to capture the feel of the game, then it should be worthwhile. Plus, the Wii version will have multiple save slots. Lucky punks...

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead is the latest game from Valve, a company renowned for its innovative and influential first person shooters. First things first, this is a multiplayer game through and through. Yeah, you can play the game by yourself, but you'd miss out on the meat of the game: cooperative gameplay. In L4D, you are one of four people who are immune to an epidemic that have turned everyone in town to animalistic, merciless killing machines. Technically, they're not zombies. They're more like the infected people in 28 Days Later (they're called Infected in the game). For all intents and purposes though, they're zombies as pretty much everything officially L4D related refers to them as such. Now that that's swept under the rug, back to the game itself. The objective of the game is simple: survive. You move from one safe house to another until the climactic chapter where you're rescued. Currently, there are four campaigns, which play out like movies with their own posters and everything. The story is pretty subtle though. Outside of an intro and outro movie, the story is not communicated through cut scenes and cinematics. Rather it's reliant on stuff like banter between characters and graffiti on walls. The average player probably doesn't care about story anyway, so this is just a bonus for those who pay attention.

In addition to the regular zombies (Common Infected), there are five Special Infected. Smokers have long tongues that can drag off an unsuspecting Survivor. Hunters are really fast and can pounce on Survivors. Boomers are fat and bloated and can vomit on the Survivors, attracting a horde of Common Infected. Tanks are large, Hulk-like behemoths that can throw boulders and cars at the Survivors. Finally, there's the Witch who remains docile unless disturbed by a Survivor by sound or flashlight. When startled, she'll go nuts on nearest person, knocking them down and slashing away. Except for the Witch, all of these zombies are playable in Versus mode, which pits a team of four Survivors against a team of Infected.

Although there are only four campaigns, the game has a feature called the AI Director, which adjusts the game according to how you play. If you wander off, you're liable to get pulled away by a Smoker or attacked by a horde of Infected. That's why it's important to stick together and work with your teammates rather than be an action hero and run around shooting willy nilly. That's the best part of L3ft 4 Dead: surviving the campaign through the beauty of friendship! But seriously, it truly gives you a sense of accomplishment when you get to a safe house with your crew intact. Valve did a great job of crafting an immersive co-op experience that holds up after multiple playthroughs. I had numerous memorable moments while playing the game like getting blindsided by a Boomer and fending off a horde of Infected while stuck in a closet. Good times. If you're into co-op shooters, I highly recommend L4D.

That's enough blathering to fill up a month's worth of posts. I'm tired.

End of an Era

2009-01-07T09:16:07Z

Today my favorite video game magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, was shut down. I've been reading the mag since my grade school days, so this news hit me like a brick wall. I suppose it was inevitable though. In this day and age where information can be had in an instant online, relying on a monthly printed medium for news and updates isn't as attractive. Such information is even more in demand in the video game industry. However, even though I visit many video game websites and blogs, I always turned to EGM as my main source for reviews and commentary. The writing was smart and funny, and the reviews were almost always fair and accurate. They weren't afraid to tell it like it is either.There's something to be said for holding a magazine in your hands, flipping through the pages, ripping out those darned subscription cards. It just feels right.

I'm hoping those who have lost their jobs are able to find work soon elsewhere. There were many talented individuals working for EGM and its companion website, 1up.com. I never got the chance to get through all the podcasts, but I'm definitely going to go through them now. Best wishes to them.

Workin'

2008-12-27T08:04:50Z

Wanna see the stuff I do with for work? Add "Heroes and Villains" by Zynga for Facebook and/or Myspace. Here's a list of stuff I've done for the app.

- On Myspace: The H&V boxes on the Home and Profile pages
- Under the Missions tab -> Lackey tab (as a hero): "Eva Tempest" Mentor tab (hero): "James Fulton" plus a couple other bosses on the villains side (winged superhero and hero team)
- Under the Council/Evil Jester tab, the Wings (along with some forthcoming special items)
- If you see any Flash banner ads, for Pirates, H&V, Space Wars, or Football, I animated those.

Also on another note

うまい

2008-12-20T06:28:14Z

I made spam musubi. :D

I made 10 but ate one and gave three to my dad for his lunch tomorrow. That's why there are those random stains on the plate.

Xbox Live Gamertag

2008-12-08T00:57:56Z

nattochan

Xbucks

2008-12-06T22:51:22Z

I finally set up my 360 in my room, although the results aren't exactly very elegant.

This is only temporary fix though. I hope to get another LCD monitor, which will give me more room with which to work.

Things for which I am thankful

2008-11-27T07:25:05Z

Friends
Family
Lolcats

Directive?

2008-11-25T09:27:20Z

My WALL-E DVD came today, and I was more than eager to tear off the shrink wrap and check out the goodies inside. Here is the front with its shinyness:

The packaging is pretty unique. You pull out the two sides to reveal the listings of bonus features for each disc. Then you fold those panels out to get to the discs themselves.

Ratatouille had practically no special features, which was somewhat disappointing. Fortunately, it's a freaking awesome movie, so I didn't mind too much. However, I was glad to see that WALL-E is loaded with special features. Disc 1 has the movie along with two shorts, Presto and BURN-E. Presto is the fabulous short that was shown before WALL-E in the theaters. BURN-E is a new short about the robot that WALL-E and EVE locked out of the Axiom. Like the movie itself, it has very little dialog, relying mostly on pantomime. It's pretty hilarious. There are the requisite deleted scenes and audio commentary along with a great documentary about animation sound design featuring Ben Burtt and old Disney sound designers. Disc 2 has a lengthy documentary about Pixar's history (you can catch a glimpse of the Brad Bird's crazy hair in the 70s!), more deleted scenes, and a bunch of other fun short clips. Disc 3 has the digital copy of the movie (which I will try and put on my Zen). To transfer the digital copy, you have to enter an activation code in iTunes or Windows Media Player. Apparently, this code expires on November 18, 2009. Uh.. OK. Thank God for DVD Shrink.

What can be said about the movie itself? Animation is the illusion of life, and Pixar is the best at creating that illusion. Of course, all the beautiful animation in the world can't save a crappy story, but at Pixar, the story always comes first. Although it's filled with all kinds of themes, ranging from consumerism to individuality, at the core it's a love story (with robots). It's sweet, clever, and funny. Just a wonderful film.