Jam Sessions - what is its purpose.

I wrote a review for Jam Sessions early this year and raved at how much fun it was and so on. I gave it an 8/10 as I was that impressed with it. Since writing this review I think I have only played with it for a couple of minutes here and there.

I have now decided that there is really no point to this game. There is no scoring or challenge which means there is no incentive to keep playing it. All the TV and internet advertising show young kids playing this game. My seven year old took one look at it and changed to Pokemon or something else and has never touched it again. The only good thing to come out of this game was the sponge cake kid add. Check Youtube to see this.

I have seen this game used on stage in a real concert but that would only be a 1 in a million. You can't actually learn how to play guitar with this so what is the point? Don't bother buying this game, use your money for something that will keep you entertained for hours instead of minutes.

Wii DVD Reader hates some shiny discs. - RANT

I got myself Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii. It came with 2 guitars and the game with instructions etc. The game is great but my problem was that the game would freeze very regularly, mostly at the end of songs but sometimes other places. I checked the disc and it had no scratches or manufacturing imperfections so that was not the problem.

My Wii has a Wii-key mod chip installed to allow me to use homebrew software to make it into a media center. I decided to backup my GH3 DVD disc onto a Ridata dvd-r and see how that went. In some country's this is illegal but the laws are sketchy in Australia. Some say you can copy the disc if you have the original for back-up purposes as was the case regarding the PS1 many years ago.

Anyway I have gone from a bright shiny silver disc to a nice purple disc. I have been playing the game for over a week now without one hiccup. It appears that the Wii DVD reader does not like some new shiny silver discs. Why do I have to go to the trouble of backing up my Wii games to make them play well. Can't the disc manufacture and Nintendo get together to make sure that either the discs are manufactured correctly or the Wii drive is not so picky and choosy as to what it will and will not play.

I feel better now.. it helps to get it out instead of keeping it bottled up inside.

My day out. Game On

I won a pass on MyDS.com.au to go to Game On at the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI). The pass arrived in the mail the week before and I decided to go today 26/03/08 as it was my week off work and also school holidays, the whole family could go with me.



As I started walking down the stairs toward the exhibition I could hear the sounds of original Space Invaders and could see a giant projection of it on the wall. Hair was raising and heart racing.

The retro gamer in me went straight to the upright arcade machines. First up was the original Donkey Kong. I sucked big time at this game and still do. Next was 1942. The high score for the day was under 50,000, I made around 120,000 with my first plane and ended up with about 166,000. I actually did better than I ever did, must have been all that practice playing on MAME.

Talking of MAME, they had a MAME machine projected up on the wall with arcade controls attached to it. It had a selection of about 10 retro games including Space Invaders, Frogger, Dig Dug and heaps more.

The multiplayer section was where all the action was. Four player Super Smash Bros Brawl was being played on Game Cube with a big audience. The other game was Halo 2 on what appeared to be Xbox 360.

The range of old gaming machines was unbelievable, they even had International Karate on the Commodore 64 which happens to be one of my favorites.
Also on show were modern machines like the Wii, 360 and PS3. I have a Wii but not the other two so it gave me a chance to try them out. The graphics were absolutely astounding on the PS3 and 360.

There is a good range of PS1, PS2 and Xbox games to play. The range of handhelds seemed complete as did the range of Pokemon games on display.
A display from Rockstar went through how a game is made and characters defined not only in appearance but in personality and speech.

I could go on forever but I think you should just go see for yourself.
A great time had by all the family.

PS: My high score on 1942 was still there when I left.

Picture - Mario as you have never seen him before.

This picture is a little naughty so I could not post it at my usual hang out.
Original posted here.

AMAP4DS Mapping Software 9/10

AMAP4DS is a homebrew application made by Christophe Andreani which will allow you to put your own mapping system on to your DS. This application is not just limited to road maps as you will see in my examples. I have mapped the Melbourne metro train system and also entertainment venues like the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix and the Melbourne show grounds. The application is totally stylus driven and the 5 stage zoom controls are down both sides of the touchscreen so this is great for both left and right handers.

*Melbourne CBD DEMO*



Pre-made maps are downloadable from the authors website http://www.andreani.net/ds/ for a range of different things like Road and Train routes from all over the world. There are none of venues like I have made but sometimes you have to think outside the square. Putting your university campus on here would be great until you learn your way around. You could easily create a stadium seating map or similar to help find your seat.

*Melbourne Metro Rail System DEMO*



The source code can be downloaded from the website to make your own maps.
It comes with detailed instructions on downloading and setting up the development tools and making your own maps. The software required is Devkitpro which has an updater to download all the latest packages required to compile Nintendo DS roms. Dot Net frame work is required to be installed for Windows machines and a package to process the images called PAlib.

Next step is to find an image of the map you want to use. I just googled around and there was no shortage of maps on the internet. Once decided you then make 5 specified image sizes of your map using your favorite image editing software and pasting it into the image templates supplied. I used Photoshop but Paint Shop Pro will do just as well. When your images are ready its just a simple matter of compiling your source code which will produce 3 files a .nds, .sc.nds and .ds.gba. Copy one of these to your flash cart and you are ready to start navigating. The software allows you to also customize the splash screens if you want to advertise your business, venue or your work.

Download My Working Examples
-Melbourne CBD. www.mediafire.com/ 4.62MB
-Melbourne Grand Pix site. www.mediafire.com/ 2.87MB
-Melbourne Rail system. www.mediafire.com/ 1.58MB
-Melbourne Show grounds. www.mediafire.com/ 3.14MB (came up really well)
-Melbourne Phillip Island. www.mediafire.com/ 1.74MB

*Screenshots of Phillip Island map and Melbourne Show Grounds.


9/10 Only knocked a point off because I thought it would be good to have automatic image processing instead of having to resize your image 5 times. I guess this is the tail end of software development just before compiling so I may be asking too much. Overall this is fantastic and very handy. I am hopeless in the CBD so I will be taking my map with me next time.

Metroid Prime Pinball 9/10

I have been playing pinball for 30 years and this game keeps the excitement going.

*Story - 6/10
Not too much of a story really. You play Samus in the morphed ball configuration of the suit. The idea is to collect 12 artifacts so that you can enter the Artifact temple to fight Metroid Prime.

*Gameplay - 9/10
Just like a normal pinball machine with flippers and bumpers, ramps and targets but with the added twist... this is no ordinary ball and your enemy jump up on the table and shoot missiles at you.

There are a few different game modes in this game. The main mode is single player mission mode. You start off with two tables and as you complete missions by killing enemy and collecting artifacts you open up new tables. There are six tables in all.

The missions are challenging and will take several attempts to complete. Enemies are killed by either hitting them or using the B button to drop a bomb next to them and blowing them up. You can also obtain missiles and a machine gun.

The shoulder buttons of the DS are great flipper controls, making the DS ideal to play this game.
The touch screen is used to bump the table. I found this hard to do while holding the flippers. Putting a finger stylus around your thumb would be perfect for this game.



*Graphics - 8/10
The tables are very detailed and so are the creatures that inhabit them. The tables have been designed around worlds in the Metroid games. All the surfaces look great. The metal shines and the rocks crumble. The holograms and flashing lights look very nice.

*Sound - 9/10
I could listen to this all day long. The gameplay music is very dramatic and changes with the mood of the game. The female announcer's voice is pleasant and at the correct volume compared to the music.

*Conclusion
Pinball and FPS have been merged very well in this game. I found it to be challenging and have great replay value. The game also has local wireless mode for up to 8 players to see who can get to a certain score the quickest on a 7th table not available in any other part of the game.

QuakeDS (homebrew) 9/10

I love nostalgia trips and this game is only a couple of years off being considered retro.

Overview
I played many games direct connect via modem but this was the first game I ever played online on a PC and the port to the DS is no let down.

Homebrew
It was announced late last year that an official version of Quake would come to the DS but nothing has appeared thus far.

The homebrew community at quake.drunkencoders.com/ have taken the step to port this once popular game to the DS and have included all the bells and whistles that were added to the original PC version.

The above site contains all the information you will need to get QuakeDS running. If you do not have the full version of the game in the bottom draw of your desk then just whip over to the ID Software website to download the shareware version of the game which will at least give you a taste of obtaining frags and making gibs in this classic shooter.


Story - 6/10
You play an unnamed soldier who has to clean up the governments mess after they invented teleportation technology called Slipgate which has opened a portal to an unknown dimension. This strange world is crawling with soldiers and all sorts of monsters.

Gameplay - 10/10
The controls used to play this game on the DS have been setup extremely well. The game plays just like the original. The control set for this game are like most other FPS's on DS.

You use the stylus to look around (mlook) and the D-pad to walk forward/back and strafe. Left shoulder button is used to fire and right to jump. X and Y are used to change weapons. The only enhancement I could think of would be to enable jump by tapping the touchpad. The optional cross hair has been included.

An on screen keyboard has been added so that you can play the game using a keyboard and also to enter commands into the quake console. DS-DS play is available but full WIFI has been disabled by default as it is not entirely stable.

Some mods for quake will also work on the DS but you have to remember that there is only a limited amount of RAM available. QuakeDS has a build that will take advantage of a Slot-2 RAM pack which will make running large mods more easily.

The menu system is the same as the original game which includes saving and loading your game. This was tested and works perfectly.

Graphics - 9/10
The graphics are the same as the original game. There are some add-ons for quake to make the water transparent and the lava and slime look better and these have been included. There are slight glitches at the start of each level while the scene is rendering but apart from that they are true to the original.

Sound - 8/10
All the sound effects are great but I could not seem to get any background music going. This was no let down as I used to turn it down anyway. The only difference to the original is a lack of ambient noise. The ambient noise used to be heard a long way from the source but now you have to be very close to the source to hear anything.

Conclusion
If you want to play a great FPS legally with your flash cart then have a go of this. It may be an old game but it will have good appeal to DS gamers as we are used to not being dazzled by a trillion mega pixel graphics.