Gaming Engines for Windows 8 Jump Start

OK, another Jump Start I attended with lots of details to explain on what went on in interesting ways. The tools mentioned in the Jump Start were Construct2, Game Maker and Unity 3D. Of course, Unity 3D is probably the most difficult to use as there may be involvement of the 3D graphics and the coding in addition to various useful features which also add to the difficulty as well. From the presentations, there are links to various sources where you can gather the resources/assets from such as the music, sounds, graphics, voices and so on. For Construct 2 and Game Maker Studio, there are already newer features compared to their previous versions. The official opinion stated that the Construct 2 is less difficult than Game Maker to use for game creation. Lastly, there's even the opportunity to publish the games made with one of those tools to the Windows Store but that requires the amount of steps and you may need newer technical knowledge of new technologies as Windows 8 technology contains a number of newer technological features we don't know of in the first place compared to the previous OSes. It's important to know the new technology as things are changing and especially when we take newer Microsoft certified courses at MVA.

Other tools mentioned were Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Inkscape, GIMP and Paint.NET. Of course, the most superior one is the Adobe products but they can be bitches to find and buy so you're better off with the alternatives like GIMP, Inkscape, etc.

For music, I already have the tools like FL Studio and Noteworthy Composer where each stuff is made in both MIDI and MP3 but I don't know when will I post these MIDI files I made with Noteworthy Composer straigtht to vgmusic.com as this may mark a future opportunity as a gamer to post those arranges there. Of course, that website seems to be westernized so I have to follow that style and especially for the 16-Bit arranges I made and posted on YouTube. Note that not all 16-Bit arranges are credited as I fear that TheEightBit will not accept those Japanese like contents I contributed with that soundfont. But enough of these personal stuffs here. For actuality, I already used certain arranges for Game Maker as well, leaving the sound effects to be un-original as I took those sounds from various sources and provided the credits all along. Lastly, before this Jump Start existed, I already have the experience in using Game Maker but it seems that my works using that tool already turned out to be the project catastrophes like things not working well no matter how many improvements and changes I put in and especially when certain parts looked impossible to clear. Not to mention, the over-execution of the contents that caused other bugs on us as well.

Some European countries will have Xbox One next year

Well, be glad about this as there is some software issue or something for Xbox One that it will be released next year in some European countries instead of this year. That may indicate some extra freedom for them although it may have been better for me to keep on blogging about the PS4 and its games instead of this controversy that tries to go against the internet freedom for gamers. We still have some time until this console is starting to be released in that may or may not mark the complete end of the internet freedom for gamers globally as if the spying with the Kinect is pretty much everywhere so keep a look out for the release date for this console.

Ginga Force obtained!

Damn, what a difficult game I had after buying it yesterday! Perhaps the weapons you have from the beginning are not quite useful/powerful enough for survival.
The improvements in the gameplay are that you can fire both the main weapon and sub weapon at the same time although the downside is that you can't use them and the special weapon at the same time. However, if you have the option shot, you can use both the sub weapon and the special weapon at the same time which can be handy enough for Chapter 4 although you need to be careful in some parts of the chapter where the enemy missiles will be fired while the giant enemy battleship moves left and right with the middle weapon firing lots of bullets downwards. That part is where you may need both the option shot and the special weapon at the same time. But if you do have the Slow weapon, you can use all three weapons at the same time but the downside is that you need to be extra careful in dodging stuffs while slowing down the time.
Other flaws involve the inaccurate graphical improvements compared to Eschatos. While the background graphics are looking even better as required for 4:3 vertical shooter in HD form, it cannot be the same for the palette of the textures, the amount of polygons applied as well as the recycled effects from the previous game. The explosions could have been even larger than the enemy size itself and the developers should have used the newer explosion sprites instead of the ones from the previous game to look even better. Another problem is the lack of boss destruction. It is fine in first several chapters where the criminals in this game should be caught but we may expect to see such epic looking boss destruction scene for Chapters 9 and 10. Lastly, the opening. Why is that made out of in-game stuffs? Can't the developers collaborate with some 2D animation studio to do the advanced work on the opening like Treasure, Konami and Warashi did? If someone at Nico Nico Douga is to do his own version, I may expect the whole opening to be in complete anime form although it may be difficult to do so.

Games for Windows Live to be shutdown July next year

Haaahaaahaaa, I bet that most PC gamers are likely to be using Steam instead of Gamers For Windows Live. Shame on the freaking Sign-In feature for refusing to work on me the other time that but at least, we all prefer Steam than Games for Windows Live. Speaking of Steam games, we can find certain hardcore PC gamers to play as well as some indie and localized Japanese games that are available for Steam. The first game and reason for using Steam of mine would be Audiosurf and that seemed to be quite fun until I stumbled upon the true arcade-style rhythm games by then for a real challenge.

Speaking of Games for Windows Live, you can use your existing Xbox Live account to play games on that service but now, it looks like even Windows 8 and Windows Phone are using the Xbox Live service as it is popular today. Not to mention that even the Zune services were all completely discontinued in favor of Xbox Live but what the extra negative to Windows Media Player is that it doesn’t have the features that allow you to connect and synchronize your Windows Phone device to your computer in the same way the ITunes has.

Optionally, I can blog about the upcoming fighting games that will be coming in next year. For example, Ultra SFIV for PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in which the PC version will be using Steam service instead but even then, my honesty is that I suck at this game genre but going back to previous game genres I have been playing is not an option if I want to be a great arcade player one day.

Renew Orb–Spying Technology Halted

The people living in London are glad to see this official good news from the company stating that the company has decided to halt this kind of program after knowing the public outcry about this controversy. Even better is that the company has decided to collaborate with EFF to respect the privacy of the people living in London. Bravos to whatever that company is, they have admitted this sort of mistake but it cannot be the same for those on-going idiots who have broken the rules of privacy thousands of times every year, that is, the ones who have been spying on the Americans, of course.

Renew Orb basically is the recycle bin mixed with technology but the spying on people’s privacy is a huge controversial downside and we’re glad to see this technology halted. Well, there can be a recycle bin mixed with technology, telling you on which types of stuffs can be recycled and especially when the recycle bin can display some message on the screen saying that it is full and it needs to be emptied. At least, this kind of recycle bin can be handy and the networking connectivity is completely unnecessary.

Countdown to support end for Windows XP

I bet that I forgot to blog about the support ending for Windows XP that will be happening in April 8 next year. Back then, the operating system was seriously infected with the worms, spywares and other virus attacks. They were quite strong back then that they had infected millions of computers and SP1 of the OS wasn’t quite enough. With SP2, the security might have improved but that was not enough as you can see in the chart below.

It appeared that Windows XP SP2 might have more infections than SP3 but it seemed that SP3 added even more technologies and securities. Unfortunately, starting next year, there will be the zero-day exploit like forever for Windows XP meaning to say that it will forever be flawed that your computer will likely to be affected unless you’re running the active Windows OSes. For Windows Vista and above, the security and technologies are quite better as seen in the chart above.

Today, with Windows 8’s Windows Defender or Microsoft Security Essentials, there is the real-time malware protection that protects your computer in real-time but of course, speaking of real-time protection from viruses and malwares, you’re better off with the superior third-party software. Also, the UEFI Secure Boot is the new feature in Windows 8 that helps prevent unauthorized OSes or firmware from running at boot time by maintaining databases of software signers and software images that are pre-approved to run on the computer. Lastly, the Trusted Boot feature in Windows 8 includes an Early Launch AntiMalware that enables the antimalware software to start FIRST. Also, the Measured Boot feature allows the third-party software on a remote server to securely verify the security of every startup component in a way that will be very difficult for malware to forge. Anything being tampered with, Trusted Boot will repair the system by restoring original files.

Other features mentioned in http://blogs.technet.com/b/security/archive/2013/04/09/the-countdown-begins-support-for-windows-xp-ends-on-april-8-2014.aspx include UAC, Bitlocker, AppLocker, etc. but they may seem to be the existing security technologies that first came out for the previous OSes. Speaking of the link here, this is where the chart of Computers Cleaned Per Scan comes from. Lastly, after the support ends completely for Windows XP, there will be huge amount of vulnerabilities for that OS and it will have a high risk of infection for sure.

Bullet Soul Infinite Burst for Xbox 360 Announced

Finally, another shmup that will be released next year from 5PB! A few days ago, there was already the full version of Double Dealing Character and some spell cards from the last boss battle were like the shout-outs to playing Combatzeal or perhaps purposely changing screen orientation yourself in the middle of the game which may be something nobody does. In Combatzeal multi-player battle, activating the Rotate powerup from the Gradius-like powerup bar will of course rotate the other players' playing fields but the rotation can be reset by getting hit or activating Reset powerup. I don't know if the rotation is temporary or perhaps permanent. For those spell cards I'm talking about, they simply flip the screen vertically or horizontally which may be some tricks no other shmups have.
Speaking of what happened a few days ago, there was an announcement of Bullet Soul Infinite Burst and the PS Vita version of Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds at the Phantom Breaker related event. Graphically, there can also be the 3DS release of Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds due to how retro the graphical style is in addition to the Vita release but for Bullet Soul Infinite Burst, I don't know what the new elements are because in the original Bullet Soul, it's basically Star Soldier meeting Ketsui or something.
As this was the initial announcement from 5PB, we may have to wait until there are actual details on what the game looks like.

Lavabit and Slient Circle shut down their Email service

Okay, today’s the National Day in Singapore in which we can have a smoother celebration online and offline although the peaceful celebration couldn’t be the same for United States in July 4th last year. Lavabit and Slient Circle have closed down due to the on-going spying program from the US government. Interesting thing about Lavabit is that Edward Snowden happens to be one of the users of this email service but to us, the non-US citizens, we don’t even know what Lavabit and Slient Circle are all about until we have discovered the news about it.

For Slient Circle, they have their official blog post stating their reasons for shutting down after discovering that Lavabit is doing the same thing as seen at http://silentcircle.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/to-our-customers/. It’s interesting that both Lavabit and Slient Circle are made in the US in addition to other companies I knew of from my childhood like CompuServe and AOL, etc. Of course, I’ve been using AOL to receive emails ever since two years ago upon seeing the stupid rumors regarding the reasonless social networking shutdown. Maybe I SHOULDN’T HAVE BELIEVED those useless rumors all along!

Now, who else eventually cares for the spies and the program leaker by then? But what we care is the important activities we should do as well as to enjoy the national celebration or perhaps the national birthday like I should have a nice August 9th. So celebrate your independence, NOT TO FOLLOW OR CONTRIBUTE TO shitty policies, laws and rules.

Megatex again

Not really much to say about this IT show that took place in August 1st until today but it seems that the same companies are showing their new products. There may be earpieces with the bass support but there are those without the bass that you may need to find some software as the work around for enabling the basses. Also, you get to see the 2 in 1 input device from Rangers company that has the remote control on one side and the mini computer keyboard on the other side. It may be cool enough if this is kind of true but I could have gone out to visit this IT show yesterday instead of today to see even more cool stuffs. Headphones on the other hand, you have to use the headphone that is loud enough for both multimedia and gaming purposes because no one wants to wear the headphone that is freaking soft and whose design is posing a challenge in wearing it.

Unfortunately, while Megatex is supposed to be the IT show event, there are appliances that are not IT related such as the beds, kitchen accessories as well as other home appliances. If those kitchen accessories have the technological stuffs such as the microcontroller stuff which we can instruct them on what to do in a cool technical way, then there will be a reason to explore them. For those things, we surely expect a mini screen along with the buttons to press with similar to what the 2 in 1 photocopying devices are.

Lastly, there are even Samsung media players with the wireless bluetooth support where you can use your IOS device for instance to tune in to music or video wirelessly. They may be great in addition to inserting some disc but the main purpose of those media players is obviously the wireless bluetooth playback.

A-Tech Rain Dance Speaker Obtained!

As seen from some IT show the last time at Singapore Expo, I eventually bought this speaker for $39.90 yesterday. This set I bought features dual speakers for some reason which added some challenge on hooking things up correctly. Of course, this is one of those cool things you can use when listening to music and comes with the Stereo Plug where you can get direct audio capture from whichever device to your computer. Of course, one end of that cable leads to the headphone jack of whichever device and the other end leads to the microphone jack of your computer if that’s what I mean correctly.

Now that I have this speaker, I should be able to redo my video capture of Xevious 3D/G+.