Category: toreview

Okay, partly as a reminder to self, but hopefully of use generally. Couple of links:

Lots of plugins that can be installed easily – Look under Categories

Official Quickstart guide to writing your own search plugins

Have played the demos in a bit more depth now on the DS. WarioWare Touched is
an outrageous game, 3-5 second bursts of stylus-shredding activity. The sheer
sense of fun and joy in it is a delight, this game isn’t going to change your
life, but it will put an unshakable smile on your face for a few hours. Metroid
Prime is interesting, the graphics are absolutely lush, there is no other way
of looking at it. But, the control is a bit weird, I am no FPS player for starters,
so this may be a factor, but I did find it tricky. Will play it some more, see
what I reckon.

Mario is now getting addictive though, that is what I have spent
the time on. Some things are easy and memorable from playing on the N64, others
need some learning and logic to progress.

Some random thoughts on the DS thus far:

The mini games on Mario are really nice, all designed to show off some
of the different control routine libraries you can use on the touch
screen. There is a very funny version of missile command, but you fire
cannonballs using a catapult, which you draw back and aim with the
stylus in one fell swoop. 8 of the mini-games are unlocked to begin with;
I read somewhere that there are something like 36 in all. Quite a mixture,
some are card games and spot the Mario, others look like they have a little
more depth to them.

Menus and letter entry are a breeze with a touch screen. I’ll
tell you something for nothing, Advance Wars will be ace on this,
speed up the the move process massively. And taking the d-pad typing out of
Animal Crossing will improve the game by about 50% alone.

Double screen is nice for gameplay. I’ll confess, in Mario so far, you
are mainly looking at the top screen, but it is useful if you are ever
lost just casting your eyes downwards slightly, and seeing your map
and your objectives. And again, some of the mini games use it so that
gameplay is across both, what you are controlling is in the bottom
screen, but what is coming towards you is in the top. That gets quite
frantic actually, may take a little getting used to in action games.

The backlighting is nice, but you need to see it without, that is
funny. I should do a couple of photos for the comparison, but so you
know, I think they will be titled “lit” and “fuck knows, I think
something is on the screen, but it may as well be turned off”

Finally, I did try out the Pictochat. You can sit in a room on your
own (which is handy for testing it out when a max of 3000 people in
the country have one). Works really well, text and drawing together. I
don’t see it being used much at all, but it is nicely done.

I’m not going to pretend I think it is a PSP beater, but
then I think going on its design spec it was never going to be. I do
think though it is bringing some much-needed innovation to the gaming
table, and I am keen to see how that gets used.

Happy with my new toy. I think the biggest suprise, is how well the touch screenworks. Very easy to use, very responsive. Lot of scope for subtlety with it. I was sold on the moment I chose my save file on Mario64 DS, and the water behind it rippled to my touch. Nice

Thinking of more search extensions to write for Firefox. I might have a bash at
Companies House searches, as we use them at work, possibly Kelkoo the shopping
comparison site too. Seem to have got the knack for them. Did manage to add in
last night the permanent rss feed button down the bottom of the page. Am thinking
about the links at the top of the page, and wondering if I could generate them
in php. At the moment, they are written in html, and if I want to alter or add
anything to them, I have to change every single page. If I could paste the code
in via php (or something), I could potentially just have to change it in one place.
Not quite sure how to do it yet, need to read around the subject more.

Didn’t get my DS yesterday. Didn’t Nintendo read my blog? Tha fools. I will now give it a bad review, and my wrath will be heard throughout the world.

Bollocks I will, I am far too much of a fanboy for that. And I do have a more
realistic view of the size of my readership than that. Also, notes to self, I need to add a link for the rss feed to the blog, and remember the downloads section

Managed to spend some time in our garden yesterday. I am trying to tidy it up, and am finally attacking a large mound of cuttings, junk and general crap that was piled at the back kindly by the previous residents. I’ve got through three bags this weekend, and not the first go I have had at it. I have got down far enough to find the frame of a small childs bike.

Still, it is starting to make a difference, if not quite being approaching nice. I should start photographing it, if for no other reason that to shame myself into keeping going with it. What I want ideally, is to get rid of the junk, both at that end, and in the gap between the patio and the house.
Get the back bit grassed over, as there is not a lot you can do with it. Tidy up the lawn, plant out the border with lots of flowers, and then sort out my herb garden so it has, well, more herbs in it. In fairness to myself, I have cut back and cleaned up a fair bit thus far. I have managed some time in the garden most weekends since Christmas, which is far over and above a personal best for me. I don’t think I want to get into gardening, I just want it sorted and nice, and also to get it to a point where it is easier to maintain.

Have been thinking, I reckon I will try and write a detailed review of the DS when I get it, keeps me busy. So what do I expect, what am I waiting to see? Well, firstly I want to see how the two screens work together, can you focus on both, or is the second a distraction? How well does the touch screen work, what does it add to the control? I like touch screens a lot, I have done a bit of work on a Smartboard at work. It is basically an electronic blackboard, you project the image from a computer onto it, and you can then write over the image, and also control the computer via touch. It was quite freaky the first time I physically dragged files into a folder with my finger but it actually made a lot of sense, far more natural than using a mouse. Surfing the internet was cool too, you move around pages far faster. So as I say, I am very intrigued to see how this translates into gaming.

I am also interested to see if the wireless works. I might not get very far, as I don’t think there are any wireless
games yet (in so far as could I connect to my wireless router, rather than another DS). And finally for the moment, I want to see what GBA games look like on it. That is one of my main reasons for getting it for starters, having something nicer to play some of my favourite games on. Obviously I am looking forwards to new games, but I do have some great GBA games I wish to continue playing.