Books

Well, I was going to just let this slide for today, but I figured I'd better try to keep up a more regular schedule as promised in the first place (I've still been posting "daily, except when I don't feel like it"; it's just that I "don't feel like it" a lot more often now), and I won't get the opportunity to post on the 29th of February for another few years.
As if that means anything.

Oh, by the way, apparently Easter is earlier this year, since it's based on a lunar calendar or something and doesn't technically have a set date.
I think it's based on the solstice (or rather the lunar equivalent, I think) or something; I don't remember.
Anyway, long story short, it won't be like this again for the rest of your life, unless you live to be many hundreds of years old.


So I remember now that I promised to deliver more impressions of Randy Alcorn's Deception when I finished it. Well, I finished it a long time ago, and I sort of forgot about it.
Basically, I thought it was an excellent book. Randy Alcorn is now very high on (if not at the top of) my list of favorite Christian authors now, after that and his Safely Home (also a good book, which our aunt got lent us to read through after their whole school read it or something).
Deception is pretty long by most standards, though, just so you know. Still, it's really thrilling and is difficult to put down, so you may not have any trouble with that (I didn't, but this is coming from Mr. Thousand-Word Blog Posts). The book mainly deals with suffering, and the often-heard question, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?", and i think it answers it pretty well, and definitely opens up opportunities for more discussion. So, if you have a friend who was wondering about that and likes to read, get them this book, because they'll probably really enjoy it, because it is a really fun and exciting (though decidedly very dark) book. I'd let them know what they were getting into, because the book is of a sort that may make them think of it as a "Christian sneak attack," if you know what I mean (if you don't, well, there's not many better ways to say it).
Deception is actually the sequel to two previous books, Deadline and Dominion (in that order). I didn't have much trouble with reading the third one first, though (I think he went into it assuming a lot of people wouldn't have read the first two, which were written several years ago), and I'm not having any trouble following up with the second book rather than the first (it was the first one that came in at the library), either. Each book seems to have rather different themes, though; so far Dominion has had to do with, yes, justice and all that, but has had a lot to do with racism too. It's been an interesting read, but it's bothering me because this particular copy is a thick paperback.
If you've never read a thick paperback, you won't know what I'm talking about, but it's really annoying, because it's hard to keep it open.... (Of all the gripes one could have about a book, the ones about the format are of course the least important.)


Anyway. In other news, I filled out this survey which means I should be getting this special edition DS stylus thing as part of a Phantom Hourglass giveaway. If you have the game, and you answer the survey quickly enough ("supplies are limited"), you could be getting one too. You have to sign up for My Nintendo, though, which means giving them your name and address and email, which, yes, means they'll send you junk. You get to control what junk you get (and I'm pretty sure you can choose to get none at all), though, and as with the case of the "Feather pen stylus," some of the junk is really cool.


Before I close, I should mention that A.D. 1999 has mysteriously died. There's something wrong with my game file, and I don't want to try to fix it now for fear my brain will exploded and I'll never want to touch the thing ever again. So I'm letting it rest for a while, and I've moved on to other things. Disappointing, I know, as I have been working on it for so long, but... oh well.

Chief: "...and they're planning on attacking the city containing the greatest and most important minds of our country!"
Max: "Well, at least we know Washington is safe!"
--Get Smart

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII

Of Pens and Lollipops

So I got to thinking, and I figure medical professionals are pretty much obsessed with lollipops.
I mean, think about it. Why do all doctors, nurses, anesthetists, surgeons, dentists, and whoever else always give away lollipops? Usually just to children, but not all the time. Now that I think about it, I've actually gotten quite a few of them far after the point I should have been considered "too old for it."
I think they're all stricken with a mental condition. It draws them to the medical field and gives them an unsatisfiable thirst for suckers. It's the only explanation.
See, they really eat most of the suckers themselves. But they need an excuse to have them around, so they give them away.
This reminds me of a funny conversation that occurred a year or two ago. It went like this:
My brother Andy: "What's all this stuff doing on my floor?! Candy?! Where'd it come from?"
Me: "Well, you know what P.T. Barnum said: 'There's a sucker born every minute.' This odds are pretty good one would have eventually ended up on your floor."
It brings up an interesting point, though. If P.T. Barnum was such a genius, why did he believe in something as ludicrous as spontaneous generation? I guess it just goes to show that one of the requirements to being a genius is being crazy.
Obviously, then, I must be moving rapidly along the road to geniushood myself.
Geniuses also do a lot of inventing, and I guess I've got that covered. I have a decent amount of mechanical and electrical knowledge, which I picked up from growing up around Andy.
Still, most of the things I construct are laughably simple.
But this is why they're cool.

Last year (as in late 2006), I needed something weird for a White Elephant gift exchange. I was looking through some random junk I have, and I found an automatic pencil with a spring stuck in the end, where the eraser should have been. I think I had just been messing around with stuff, but it may have had some purpose originally. Anyway, I found out that it could launch stuff pretty well. I started with some new pencils and made them able to shoot nails, just by adding a spring to the inside of it. You'd pull off the back (what you would do to put more leads in it and such), pull the eraser out of it, and stick a nail in (I clipped of the points, and anyway it fired head-first). You could fire it just by pulling the nail back really hard. It shot really well, and still works as a pencil. I don't know what happened to mine, but Seth still has one.
Anyhow, today I decided to make another one. For this one I used a pen, and it works a little differently. Instead of firing nails, it fires rolled up strips of aluminum (taken from the back ends of regular pencils). I think it fires just as well as the first ones. Well, maybe not quite as well, but still pretty nicely. It doesn't work as a pen, either, but that's just because it's out of ink.

Here's a picture of the pen:














If you unscrew the top, you'll see the spring inside:















Here's the things it shoots:














Now, here's a video demonstration. I took it with my camera, which yes, is seriously broken, but does technically work still. I had a problem with background noise (people screaming, etc.), and the only way I could cut it out was by replacing the audio with something else, so I went with this calming OCR Super Mario Bros. mix. And yes, it really was that big of a problem.

--Click here (It wouldn't let me embed it in the blog directly)--

Did you miss it? Probably. Well, it basically bounced of the wall, went over my head, and landed on the floor.
Anyway, here's how it's fired, basically:

--Click here--

And that's about it. Later (possibly even today) I may borrow Seth's pen so you can see that one, too. I'll probably also be working on some new stuff.

"See how the animations are so fluid? That's because we did a lot of live motion capture. We actually put some of our friends in hockey suits and kicked them down staircases."
--Raigan Burns, regarding the XBLA version of N+

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII

Game Design

Ohman... 1999 beta is sooo close I can taste it! It tastes like... like... guava!
It's going to be pretty great; you Mac-using folks are going to miss out. The good news, though, is that the Macintosh version of Game Maker is probably going to be released soon; hopefully that will cross-compatibility.

Anyway, basically, I shouldn't even call it a "beta version," as it's just an early thing so people can see what it's like. Basically, all it is is the normal multiplayer battle, and you can unlock more planes (right now there are 22 unique planes, each with two colors; so, a total of 44) to use by playing a lot times. Right now, all you can do is fly your plane around and shoot, and pick up capsules that either give you a new weapon (which lasts until your plane is shot down), or cause an immediate effect, like launching a homing missile or repairing your plane.
The full version will improve on the basic combat engine, adding stuff like weapon cooldown and fuel consumption (the latter being a cool idea of Adam's). Also, there will be more planes, (I'm shooting for 34 unique planes, 90 counting recoloring), more modes to play (including ones for one player), and tons of fun unlockable things; unlockable content is going to be a major focus of this game (and was from the start).
That being said, you probably shouldn't expect the full version until mid-late next month at the earliest, but it depends on how much I work on it (which I hope is a lot, but we'll see).

After that, I think I really want to get cracking on Fafnir-Cola. I really like the general concept, and I think it's pretty unique. I want to make unique games, I really do. 1999 is nothing radical, really, but its main purpose is to grab people's attention, and get them to start expecting more cool games in the future. That may not have been the goal going into it, but I guess it has sort of become that.
My previous games have actually been pretty different (Nautanks wasn't really unique or special, though; it was more of an exercise, and my first decent game.); you should check out the "Elastic Apogee Minigames Collection," which is particularly unique (again, though, no Linux or Macintosh). So far it only has fourteen downloads, which I think is really a shame.
All of my games could really use to be played more, so do yourself (and me!) a favor and check them out!

Anyhow, as I was saying, I try to make my games unique. I want them to really stand out from the rest, not necessarily because they're that much better, but because they're different. I've been slowly getting more serious about game design; I think it may (may) even become a career. I'm not so sure, though.
I always used to think that no real people had jobs like that, up until recently. Suddenly I realized, "Hey, there are still people who design games for a living. It doesn't really matter how good I'd have to be or how many people really have jobs like that; I could still be one of them."
I also used to think that designing games meant you had to know a lot of complicated programming stuff. But that's not the case; games are designed by large staffs of people, each with specific jobs. The people who are "in charge," and actually designing the games, just have to design the games, that's all (I realize this isn't always the case, especially with independently-designed things, of course). I have a lot of crazy ideas, and I really think I could do it.... Could. But should? I don't know the answer to that question yet.

So, moving on. One of my big sources of inspiration has always (ever since I first played one of his games) been Jesse Venbrux.
He designs games using the same program I use, and they're just spectacular. In his case his games stand out because they're really different and they're of high quality.
The first game of his I played, Wubly, is really interesting. It's sort of like DDR or something, but you won't immediately recognize that, because it's actually a platformer. This little pink creature, Wubly, rolls across the screen, and when he reaches a yellow ring, you have to press an arrow key: up to jump, down to bounce, left to slow down, and right to speed up. Once you've gotten the pattern for the level down, it's just about timing. I think it's cool because it's like one kind of game disguised as another. It also has heaps of unlockable content, which is always cool. One thing that is pretty different but may not be all that good is that you must keep Wubly fed, or he'll pass out, and your save data will be deleted. I've never had that happen though, as the game always warns you when he's hungry and you need to go back and feed him.
Jesse Venbrux's latest game, Frozzd, is pretty cool. It's very unique, though it does use 360 degree gravity (as he himself even admits) inspired by Super Mario Galaxy. It's two-dimensional, though, so it's still quite different, and it's just how you move around the stage and whatnot. The object of the game is to unfreeze creatures called Mubblies. You can't unfreeze them yourself, but instead other Mubblies follow you around and shoot fireballs; if they're set to "unfreeze," they'll fire at frozen Mubblies, but if they're set to "attack," they'll attack the evil Frozzd you encounter.
You can check out both those games, and all his others (yes, only for Windows), at his YoYo Games page.

Anyhow, that's about it for today. I was going to post some screenshots of 1999, but... Oh well. I guess it can wait until tomorrow, or something.

"I'm a scorpion, and I'm grinning!"
--My brother Luke

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII

Cartooooons?

So now I've gotten a lot of those sprites done; here are several of them (you'll notice that I added some neck armor and another strap across his body):










There are plenty more where those came from, but I imagine you get the idea. I've decided that someday I'm going to make some kind of fighting game with this guy, so I made a list of the animations I'd want. I just have a few more things left to do for him, but, of course, there would need to be other characters with the same number of animatinos. That could take a while, so this is certainly not a big priority right now; this first guy (who I have named Dalik) I was pretty much just doing for fun originally, anyway.

So I have nothing big to post today, but it's Friday so I'm up later and had no reason not to post.
As some of you may have discovered, I've made a Facebook group entitled "People who actually read Paul's blog" or something of that nature. It was kind of to say, "hey, look, nobody really reads this, why not?", but please join anyway; maybe you'll surprise me. I only know of maybe two or three people who read this on a semiregular basis....

In other news, I'm thinking of starting a comic about computers, video games, the Internet, net culture, and general geekiness. If you have any ideas, send them in, and I'll see if I can use them. I've already had a few decent ones of my own (remember "See Spot pwn n00bs"?), but I'll probably run out of ideas and need yours, or at least something to spur my own ideas (i.e., "do one about ____").

Other than that, I guess I don't have anything else to post. I really should get to posting daily, even when I don't have much to say. I guess it's not that hard.
I think I'm going to go write some Ring of Eshara now.

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"You must recover!"
--(in?)famous Masahiro Sakurai quote
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:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII

I need a new computer

So, sorry I haven't posted in a while.
Basically, I haven't been able to come up with anything to post in a while; I guess I've had a lot on my mind.... If you haven't heard about it already, well, you're probably not going to, or at least not now.
If that sounds rude, well.... Ech, it's hard to explain, but I just don't want to talk about it. I feel like I've said enough already, really.
At least one of you knows a lot of what I'm talking about, at least.


Anyhow. Basically, today I worked on some sprites. I did them totally from scratch, and I kinda like how they turned out. Normally I'm pretty bad with human figures, and I stick with vehicles and objects and whatnot.
This time, though, I think I got something pretty good:






As you can see, he's some kinda kid who has a sword and a small bladed shield thing. I think I may eventually use him for some kind of fighting game. I have outlines of some other frames of an animation; I'll post the whole thing as soon as it's done (maybe tomorrow).
I notice that his leg is a little off (like the part above the knee is longer); I'll probably fix that in a bit.

Anyway, I've decided that I need a new computer.
The decision was spurred by the fact that Savage 2: A Tortured Soul will not run on my current machine. The cost of all the stuff it would take would probably cost more than getting a new computer, thus that is what I will no doubt end up doing.
This stinks because I don't have a job, and I'm definitely not spending money on a new computer right now. I'm going to be getting a new camera pretty soon here, and while that's certainly much cheaper than a computer, I still consider it a very big purchase, and I'm not buying a new computer right after that.
It probably won't happen until late next year, I imagine, and will probably be a laptop or something; it'd be nice to have something portable for when I go off to college (no, I don't know where that will be yet).
For now, then, I'll have to be content with Savage: The Battle to Newerth. It's actually free to play that online, anyway, and the sequel costs thirty dollars. Still, that's really cheap, especially since it's just an initial fee with no monthly or annual costs.
Regardless, it's pretty disappointing, since I've been looking forward to the sequel for a really long time. Still, I'm excited for next month, when my siblings and I will be purchasing Super Smash Bros. Brawl (it will only put us each back ten dollars that way), and I'm going to get Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (OK, so maybe I should just say "probably," as it's not entirely certain; I dunno if we'll be able to get a hold of them right away or anything). Those should probably keep me occupied for a very long time....
On top of that, I'm getting N+ totally free in April or something. That's supercool to be sure.

I really have nothing I feel like talking about (I know I've mentioned bringing up a couple topics before, but not now), so I'm going to discuss how my life is now, basically.

First I wake up, and then eat breakfast or take a shower. Then I take a shower or eat breakfast. Sometimes I forget what I did first and do one of them twice in a row (okay, not really; that was a joke). Next, I do some schoolwork. I should note that at this point I'm supposed to be practicing my clarinet, and really should be... but I don't have any music to practice. Well, I do, but it's not challenging and is therefore really boring and I feel like I'm wasting my time. Anyway. After that it would be time to "officially" start the school day; my mom will read something from a book, and ask questions. This is directed more towards the my younger siblings (they are, after all, fourth grade Brain Quest cards).... So next I do school work. By the time I finish with everything (a little before 11:00), it's my turn to go keep my siblings occupied so they aren't bothering the people doing schoolwork. After that, I work on the computer for about thirty minutes. This usually is on one of my projects, like 1999, for instance. Sometimes I don't work in this time period and just mess around. Anyway, then it's noon, so I eat lunch. After that, I pretty much work on my computer, play on my DS, and read. If it's snowing, I'll go out and help shovel the driveway later in the afternoon. Otherwise, I continue to work on my computer, play on my DS, and read. Around four fifteen, it's time to clean the house (we run on very organized schedules, though you won't see much evidence of that when there is not much to do and not many places to go). After that, I continue to work on my computer, play on my DS, and read. Then I eat supper. After that, I work on my computer again for a little bit until supper is cleaned up; then I wash the dishes. After that, I play on my DS, read, and work on the computer. Then I go to bed. Then I wake up, and the cycle repeats.

That's pretty much it. Of course, you have to add in my devotions, of course, which would occur either before I go to bed or after I wake up, depending on whether I get up right at seven. Also, on Wednesday nights, I go to youth group, on Saturday, you can remove all the school-related stuff (in other words, it's just eat, play DS, work on computer, read), and on Sundays, you can add in going to the morning church service. We usually don't make it to the evening service; our church is pretty far away right now.
Other than that, that's pretty much how it goes.
Funny how that was labeled as a summary of my life; it makes it sound simple and boring, and my life is neither right now.
Not that I'm not pretty bored, or that I still don't feel ignored. On the plus side, I've had lots of interesting discussions with Adam lately, which make me feel less ignored and more like I have some sort of direction I'm headed with life. Also, I (and apparently someone else who had the same idea)'ve convinced him to write a book (on creationism and why atheism is ridiculous and suchlike), and I'm going to help I guess.


Well, basically, that's all for now.
I know my posts are getting weirder to some of you, what with all these vague allusions to things you couldn't possibly understand (especially when I don't tell you about them). You can certainly ask, though.
Oh, I realized I forgot a quote last time. Bummer. Well, here's a good one (though you'll have already seen it if you were on the same time as me on MSN today, or if you're one of my siblings, and have heard me repeat it several times [though I'm trying to pretend you don't actually read this, as that would cause me to take odd angles when relating some things, kinda like what I just did]):

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"The painting of our battle will be a masterpiece when it is completed! I shall call it: 'My Pokemon is Fight!'"
--An artist in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
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:::Source=Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII

Ring of Fates and two lists (plus the promised Luigi pictures)

So, first off, I should post those pictures of Luigi (of Super Mario fame, for those of you who missed that post... but really, what other Luigi would it be?).

The first one, "Squeegee Luigi" (It's a modified sprite from SMB3; I didn't actually do it from scratch):





And here, zoomed in, so you can see it in all its 16-bit glory :









Speaking of sixteen bits, I think I should clarify something that has confused me, and likely confuses you too.
So, basically, you'll hear a lot about graphics being "8-bit" or "16-bit" or something of that nature. When you hear these, before application you have to realize that it could be referring to two different things. If it's talking about something from a video game, it probably is referring to the "age" of video games the game is from. So it actually is referring to a processor in that case, and not a color palette directly, but rather the sort of graphics that processor could support. However, actual 8-bit graphics refer to a 256-color palette, as I was speaking of before. 8-bit graphics can still be very snazzy-looking, then.
So, basically, before when I was talking about the graphics of Cave Story / Doukutsu Monogatari, it probably would have been less confusing to not refer to them as being 8-bit, now that I think about it. They're still in the lower end of that spectrum.

Anyway, here's the second picture of Luigi:















So I don't remember if this was explained in my previous post. This is one of the ways Luigi taunts his opponents in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's supposed to be an animation; you have to click on it for it to show up right; otherwise it'll stay a static image. And, yes, it does pretty much look just like that in the game! Pretty goofy, right?

So, anyway, the third picture, of Leaf (The Spirit of Power in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass) will have to wait, as I guess I haven't done the solid lines on it yet, and I may want to color it after it's been scanned, I dunno.


So today I have two lists for all of you. The first is the shorter, one, and it is....


The Top 4 Most Repeat[ed/able] Quotes Ever


4. "Missed it by that much!"
-Maxwell Smart, agent 86 of Control, in Get Smart

Not a whole lot of people will recognize this quote, but Get Smart was pretty popular back in the day. Now, though, it has more of a cult following (more on what this means later, probably along with an explanation of what a meme is, or something).
My (supercool) Grandma got me the whole first (supercool) season of the (supercool) show for my birthday. Anyway, this quote comes mainly from an episode where this evil KAOS agent was about to escape out a fifth floor window:
Smart: "You'll never make it, it's a five-story drop!"
KAOS agent: "Do you think I'd be that stupid? There's a KAOS truck filled with mattresses waiting for me down there!"
KAOS agent: *jumps*
Smart: *leans out window*
People in room: *horrified looks*
Smart: (holding up fingers) "Missed it by that much!"


3. "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
--Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi in Star Wars

So Luke and Obi-Wan, with R2-D2 and C-3PO in the landspeeder, are flagged down at an Imperial checkpoint. Obi-Wan waves his hand, using the "force" to perform special Jedi mind trickery on a Storm Trooper. Cue line.
This seems to be IGN's favorite Star Wars quote. They abuse it like none other ("These aren't the droids you're looking for." "These ARE the droids you're looking for" "These aren't the ____ you're looking for" "This isn't the _____ you're looking for").

2. "No, Luke! I am your father!"
--Darth Vader in Star Wars V: The Empire Stikes Back

This quote is often repeated with odd inflection, like this: "No, Luke, I am your father!" what he actually says is more like this: "No, Luke! I am your father!" There's actually a pretty big difference... kinda like the "one small step for (a) man" thing. Also, people often think of Darth Vader as having a really deep voice, and his name is almost synonymous with deep voices. It's kinda silly, because he doesn't have that deep of a voice, really. It's just very harsh.

1. "Thank you, Mario, but our princess is in another castle!"
--Toad in Super Mario Brothers

Ah, it's like Mario in a nutshell. The pure embodiment of SMB frustration. You go through a whole World of nutty monsters and traps, ending in a deadly castle filled with fireballs and lava... only to discover that, yes, the princess is in yet another castle.


Too bad I can't come up with more than four at the moment... oh well. The next list is:


The Funniest Words in the English Language
(OK, so they're not all English in origin, and some are proper noun things, but who cares?)

Albuquerque
Sassafras
Sheboygan
Waterloo
Sasquatch
Zucchini
Weasel
Spackle
Fuchsia
Winch
Chainsaw
Pickle
Fipple
Beluga
Blubber
Watermelon
Zanzibar
Squeegee
Gibraltar
Polynesia
Banana
Westminster
Trapezoid
Lamprey
Parakeet
Ripcord
Popsicle
Smörgåsbord
Didgeridoo

...I figured the list was best in no particular order. It augments the randomness.
If I think of more things to add to the list, I'll post a revised version later.


Now, for my next topic; Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. Specifically, why I'm looking forward to it.
See, the first FFCC game, for Gamecube, really was a good effort. The problem was that it had a huge multiplayer focus, and not many people had all the stuff to do it (I'm one of the few people that has gotten to enjoy it on many occasions): A Gamecube, two to four (one for each player) Gameboys (Advance), a GCN-GBA connection cable for every Gameboy, and, of course, the game itself. We just happen to have all that stuff, so I can see how a lot of people would be griping about not wanting to go out and buy all the things you need.
Well, this time around, just everyone needs their DS and their game. Also, the game is going to have a much bigger single-player focus.
The gameplay itself has been improved, too. Firstly, you can jump now, which you wouldn't think is much, but you couldn't do it in the first one (and there was no reason to). Now that you can jump, the environment has a lot more depth to it, making it more interesting.
Another cool thing is, you can pick up and throw objects and enemies. You can do stuff to grabbed monsters, too, like attacking them while they're held or smashing them against a wall. Also, you can grab on to a flying enemy and attack it, which is pretty cool.
I think one of the best improvements is that now all equipment shows up on the characters.
The first game was simply gorgeous and its characters looked really great, but you only got to choose from four different appearances (for each tribe/gender, with a total of 32, which I guess isn't all that bad), and your character never changed (except their weapon, and, if they were a Clavat, their shield). Now, though, hats/helmets and armor show up on your character, and they're really cool looking. Check out this picture for some examples. I think the Black Mage Yuke (second row, third column) is nifty, but you might not think so as much if you haven't seen much of the Final Fantasy series.... For similar reasons, I also like the Lilty with the Bomb mask (third row, eleventh column).
Anyway, the game looks really cool, and I'll hopefully get it, preferably very close to the launch date.

Speaking of DS stuff, can everyone else who has a DS comment here and let me know? Then I can email you my friend codes and we can play Wi-fi stuff!

OK, well, I'm done now.

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
Finally, a post of decent length!

Sidekicks, Delays, Free Stuff....

Well, for starters, sorry about this post not being done earlier. It's lame, because this is the fourth post this month, and it's the thirteenth! I'll try to post stuff every day as much as I can from now on.

Anyway, if you've been checking up on my website (I'm sure nobody has been), you'll have seen today's announcement: Fafnir-Cola has officially been put on hold.
It's sad, but it's true, and it's quite relieving, so I don't feel too bad about it. Basically, I was working on too much stuff, and I should have made Fafnir-Cola a long-term project from the start.
Of course, this is partly to make room for new projects, because I already have some ideas. I hope to finish A.D. 1999 (or at least get it to a playable state that can be considered "done") before those go into full swing, though.

Anyway, I've been experiencing and causing several delays lately. Besides Fafnir-Cola, there's my total redesigning of the Egoboo website, which has slowed to a crawl. I've been having serious trouble getting it to display properly on multiple browsers. It's pretty frustrating.
Also, of course, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is still going to be released on March 9th. Pretty sad, but oh well. On March 11th, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (a mouthful, I know) is coming out, so I have two games to look forward to that are coming out around the same time. N+, which I thought was going to be out in March, is apparently not going to be out until April. I don't think that was an official release date, anyway, and neither is this one, probably. Oh well, at least I'll be getting a free copy!
It's true; Mare and Raigan answered my question, so now I'm getting the game free. Yay!

Robots are awesome. And ninjas are like, totally, completely, undeniably awesome. Are you afraid that your game will be so mind-blowingly awesome that people's brains will literally explode and you'll get sued?

This is one of the major problems we had with the original N; thankfully our incredible team of awesomeness lawyers managed to prove scientifically that it was in fact the robots' fault. We really dodged a bullet there!

I get a lot of free stuff, don't I? It's pretty weird.

Anyway, I got to thinking about sidekicks. For some reason, they're always my favorite characters in things. A lot of times, the main character is subtly egotistical and steals all the glory, while the sidekick, who stays in the background, accomplishes as much as -- or more than -- the hero.
For example, my favorite Mario character is probably Luigi (Well, I also really like Toad; it's pretty close). My favorite Sonic character is Tails, definitely. My favorite character from the Fullmetal Alchemist universe is Alphonse. For a long time, my favorite Batman character was Robin (the Dick Grayson one, that is).
Anyhow, you can see the trend there. I guess it's just my personality. I'd much rather be slightly in the background, still doing cool stuff, than be the person who seems to be the super-important one.
Hm. Interesting.

Anyhow, I can't come up with anything else to add at this point. My posts are definitely getting shorter; it's sad.
Maybe I'll post again (or edit this one) if I think of something else.

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"Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle African-American?"
--This funny article Evan found, on the Internet or something
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:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
The end .... for now.

Brief Ramblings

Bleh. I can't think of much to post, but I don't want to go without posting for so "long" again.
So... hm. Well, today I did a bunch of interface for the brand-spankin'-new Egoboo site. It's pretty sw33t so far, but right now it just has my buttons and icons. You can look at it here. While you're at it, why not download the latest version of the game?
Huge increases in traffic have been predicted, and not just by me. This is mostly due to the fact that the original site (the one that turns up first on Google searches) was merged with the current one, using the old one's address. More people will end up there, one would think, and the nice design should draw them in (none of the old sites were much to look at)-- not necessarily how it is now; it still needs work.

In other news.... Wait, what's in other news?
*grabs imaginary newspaper* Ah, that's right. Mitt Romney dropped out of the race today. Huge surprise to me, but I can't say I mind at all.
Also, Microsoft is trying to buy Yahoo!. Classic.
How about that writer's strike? Still on, I think. Want to know a secret? I don't care. It's not like a I watch much TV (Though MythBusters last night was cool. They broke a bunch of stuff. Again.). All the movies coming out this summer that I want to see don't seem to be suffering, since they were probably written in their entirety long ago (and the strike is primarily of television writers anyway). And there are maybe two video game writers in the guild, so I'm safe on that front too. Yes, video games do have very complicated stories. If you were willing to devote the time, I'd tell you to play through Final Fantasy VI, and you'd never say anything bad about the industry again, especially in regards to plots. That game is totally epic.
Speaking of which, I've noticed (mostly stuff on the Internet) that it's trendy to misuse the word "epic" nowadays. It's the new "awesome" or whatever. I don't even know that that many people know what it means. "Fail" and "Win" are very common too, in either one-word sentences or in the form "X=Fail/Win." Odd. Just like a small comparison I did in answer to a question in economics; it was concluded with "Thrift store= WIN." I'll let you use your imagination to come up with the rest. Don't spend too much time on that, though.

Hm. I feel like exploding things (I mean, exploding, as in a verb. I don't feel as if I am something that is exploding). I've been playing a lot of DS, which is big on strategy and RPG stuff. I could use more actiony games. I should really get Contra 4; I don't know why I haven't yet.
...Wow, even my computer is sadly devoid of explosive stuff. Not entirely, mind, but there's still not much. I think I should throw together a quick game tomorrow so I can blow stuff up. I'm thinking robots. And... lots of fire. And explosions, of course. And more explosions.

Anyway, I'm done for today. Sorry for the shortness. I'll maybe post some pictures tomorrow.

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"Shoot them! ...or something"
--Some guy in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
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:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
The end! ...or something.

Rants on trivial topics no sane person would feel strongly about

Sorry I didn't post anything these last three days. Honestly, I couldn't come up with anything. Very weird. Probably it's because I'm not in a very creative mood. Instead of designing computer games and writing, I've been playing DS games and reading Randy Alcorn's Deception (It's a very good book so far; I'm maybe three-fifths of the way through it; I'll post more detailed thoughts when I'm finished.). Of course, I did draw up a pretty cool picture this morning of Leaf, the Spirit of Power from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I'll color it and get it posted eventually. Oh, and I also have a couple of quick projects involving Luigi (From the Mario Bros. franchise; who else?): one is a gif animation I made of one of his taunts from Super Smash Bros. Brawl (very quirky and quite funny), and the other is a simple little "Squeegee Luigi" sprite. I figured, hey, there's Fire Mario, Tanooki Mario, Frog Mario, Bee Mario... and although Luigi usually has them too, he usually doesn't get much attention. hence, Squeegee Luigi.

Anyway, my first topic is actually going to be some reflections on the Legend of Zelda series. Uninterested people can just skip to the fun part, although the general point is to convince people how awesome the games are.
So moving on, the Zelda series is awesome. If you haven't played any games yet, get one immediately, particularly if you have the consoles they're for, which is pretty much any Nintendo thing ever.... Actually, it is any Nintendo thing ever. Or, scratch that. No Virtual Boy. But really, who has one of those (I mean besides our family... somewhere....)?
Anyway, the Zelda games are really spectacular. Not just in specific details, but in pretty much every way. They have solid storylines, great characters, and awesome music. You can listen to the music at this cool website I just found. It's played by a very convincing "virtual orchestra."
So, besides the awesome music, engaging plots, and memorable characters, there's also, of course, the gameplay. The games are, I suppose, "Action-RPGs," in that they're adventuresome game wherein you fight enemies in real time. It really stands out, though, because it's got all these great puzzles and "really cool toys" you find that help you solve said puzzles, get around faster or more efficiently, and kill enemies more effectively (Actually, almost anything can destroy stuff, even, say, a grappling hook). Every dungeon (the typical game has around eight) has a treasure hidden in it, and they're almost always really cool. There's the hookshot (it appears in a many of the games), which is a weird sort of mechanical device that launches a spike on a chain that pulls you towards things, or pulls lighter things towards you (sort of like those grapple gun things they use in the movies). Then there's the Cane of Somaria (only in a few of the games), which magically creates blocks you can use to hold down switches and suchlike (often, you can also cause the blocks to explode and take out enemies too). There are tons more interesting items, and other simple but fun things like a bow and arrow. One tool that appears in nearly every game (Maybe it is in every game; I'm not sure.) is the boomerang. It can pick up objects and pull them back towards you, flip switches, stun enemies, and all sorts of other neat stuff. One of my favorite items is the Bombchu. Bombchu are basically explosive robot mice. You drop them, they scuttle along the ground (Sometimes even up walls!), and then they explode. In Phantom Hourglass you can draw very precise paths for them (which you can also do with the boomerang), which is really cool.
Pretty much every Zelda game also has an interesting little gimmick thrown in that sets it apart. In The Minish Cap, there are objects you can find called Kinstones that come in halves. If you find someone who has the other half of one of your kinstones, you can fuse them together, and something good happens. Often it's something affecting the terrain, like thorny vines that were in your way shriveling up. In Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (An interesting pair of games; when you complete one you are given a special code that will allow you to access special features in the other), there are magical rings you find scattered around the world. They can have helpful effects, like causing you to not take damage when walking on spikes, or just odd effects, like turning you into a Moblin (a common enemy in many Zelda games).
In a nutshell, the Zelda games are totally awesome.
...I said that already, didn't I? Yeah, several times. It's true though.


Now rant time! I decided I should complain about stupid stuff. So I'm going to complain about really, really stupid stuff.
Obviously, you shouldn't take much of this seriously.

Butter. It's so dumb. Why do they call it butter? It's very non-descriptive. I mean, we have peanut butter, apple butter, butter of antimony.... Different kinds. It's almost like it refers to the consistency of the substance. Originally, maybe it didn't, but now it's stupid, because milk butter is still referred to as just "butter." Why?! Why not call it milk butter? That's what it is, isn't it? How long does it take to say "milk?" How much does it cost to add it to the label on a package? I'm going to guess not very long, and not very much, respectively.

Why do people put on socks when they're cold? We were talking about this with some friends who are missionaries to Japan. Apparently, in Japan, they think that your body should be warmer; so when we put on socks, they'd put on another sweater, I guess. Has it really been scientifically proven that feet are actually central to the bodies thermal balance? It's probably just something stupid somebody made up, I bet.

Why do we think dirt is so bad? Why is it dirt that makes things dirty? Basically, it just comes off the ground. There's a lot less of it on earth than there is water, right? Or at least on the surface. And we never complain about that. True, we do need water to survive, and we don't need dirt. But still, is dirt really all that bad? I don't see why it should be considered bad. A lot of people live in houses with dirt floors. Do you think they sweep them? I'm going to guess probably not.

Have you ever compared the costs of consumable objects to the cost of more permanent things? It's interesting, because they don't line up. You could get a box of doughnuts for.... Whoah, hey, speaking of which, why don't we spell it that way anymore? I was taught to spell it doughnut, not donut. That's really weird; I'm pretty sure people did really used to spell it doughnut. That's another stupid thing, right? Yep. Moving on, you could get a box of doughnuts for the same price as... oh, how about a trowel? Which is going to last longer? Probably the trowel, by a very good bit. All the doughnuts do is fill you up a bit, and taste good. The trowel can be used for years and help you get various... gardening-y things... done. So why is it the same price as a box of doughnuts? I don't know; it's very weird.


...Anyway, I hope all that was interesting, and maybe made you think a bit. I'm done.


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"The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form — www — takes three times longer to say than what it's short for."
--Douglas Adams
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:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
...All done now...

Multi-Topic Extravaganza... ...of Doom?

Hey, it's my 30th post! Yay?
You know what's cool? I think a good number of people are actually starting to read this blog. I spoke too soon just because I didn't have any feedback. Someone from OC Remix even commented on my post about their site. Thanks for that, by the way!

So firstly, there's a new competition for Yoyo Games. I really want to do this one, and it's right up my alley; the theme is "Ancient Civilization." I could easily wrap up Fafnir-Cola within the time limit (I have until April 24th or something like that) and make it not as good as it was going to be, but I'm just going to put together something else. I already have ideas; I had the idea to do a game where all the graphics looked like cave drawings a long time ago, and I'm going to give that a shot again (The original game in question was an MMORPG thing, which is funny since I despise those generally. I was just trying out this engine, and I figured I may be able to solve the problems I have with the genre. I may get back to it someday). I was thinking something simple and open-ended would work out pretty well. I don't have many specific ideas though.
Anyway, this means I should really start working overtime on A. D. 1999. I really want to actually finish it. Of course, I may be rushing myself. I have a lot of stuff, but no deadline commitment. In fact, in some cases, I've purposely said "This won't be done before ______" because I want them to be good. These cases would mainly be Fafnir-Cola (done no earlier than this summer, but probably quite a bit later since I'm occupied with a bunch of other stuff) and Ring of Eshara (which I will probably still be working on well past when I graduate next year). I think I'll just take it easy. So far I haven't had much pressure; all I've gotten has been "Well, I hope ____ turns out well!" and that kinda thing, although one friend has asked a few times whether Ring of Eshara is done yet.

So I read today that Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo. I don't have much to say about that, except that it should be interesting. They already own so much, and I'd really like to see them try to tackle Google and challenge their Internet superiority. There's no way they'll win in any perceivable definition of the term ("win," I mean). No matter how successful they become financially, Google will still be a verb.
Speaking of which...

I have a dream.
I dream of a day when Photoshop is no longer a verb. I dream that in this day, there will be no such thing as an "industry standard." People won't be expected to pay hundreds of dollars to consider themselves a graphic designer. The only reason that day hasn't come yet is because of jerks. These jerks continue to think that Photoshop is superior. It isn't. The GIMP does all the same stuff, yet it's a different program. Another thing I hate is how people always say the GIMP is a "cheap, freeware Photoshop." It's a totally different program. Its interface is different, the way it runs is different... everything is different. The differences may not always be huge, but they're definitely there. At the same time, though, any feature you may point out that Photoshop has, the GIMP has it too. Also, the GIMP runs on Linux. Does Photoshop run on Linux? I don't think so.

By the way, I "advertise" things like that a lot. I think I should point out that I'm not actually advertising, and I'm certainly not paid or anything. I just either think the thing I'm talking about is really cool, or I think they need more recognition. A lot of times it's both. I like recommending things to people, because people really miss out on a lot of stuff. I kind of consider it my duty or something. It's a thing I really think I should be doing; I really enjoy it when I can recommend something to someone and they end up really liking it. It's sad when people go around just plain not knowing about stuff.

Oh, did you know the Internet connection at our house is working really well now? That's why I didn't post yesterday.
It was a problem with a router, apparently. When one computer was hooked up to the Internet directly, it worked fine. When it went through a router, all the computers suffered. We replaced the router, and now it works fine. I'm hoping it stays this way, but it might not.
As a result of this, I can now play stuff online. If anyone else plays Savage: The Battle for Newerth, let me know so we can play sometime; I love that game. Also, I really want to know people's Friend Codes for DS games.... The Wi-Fi games I have are Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Worms: Open Warfare 2, Rune Factory, Pokemon Pearl, and Final Fantasy Fables. I don't think there are any more, but maybe I forgot one. I dunno. Anyway, all you people who have a DS, email me your Friend Codes so we can play and stuff. If you forgot my email address... well, just ask in a comment to the blog. If you're reading this on Facebook, though, all of my emails are in my profile, so... yeah.

Did you know I'm the biggest pessimist ever? A lot of you may find that hard to believe, but it's true. We were talking about this when we were shoveling the driveway (which is quite a task, by the way; our driveway is pretty big) today. We were discussing how much progress we had made and whether the Comcast guy (or girl, I guess, although it never has been) would come to fix our Internet. I said that we still had a ton to shovel, and that nobody would show up today because the weather was bad. The Comcast people (maybe just the ones near us), as a general rule, are really annoying and not helpful at all. They make me really mad, and I was actually going to report them to the Better Business Bureau (which I've never done before; I was learning about it in Economics) when someone ended up showing up after all, and figuring out that the problem was actually with the router. We were never able to figure this out because we always had to go through the router; the Internet cable couldn't reach a computer. Anyway, as I said earlier, the Internet got fixed, and I'm ecstatic. As it happens, it didn't take long to finish the driveway either, which was nice.
So why be a pessimist? Well, I used to be pretty optimistic, but I'm always disappointed by things. Those of you who know me know that I really could be like one of those people who's always complaining about their life (this really annoys me, by the way), because really mine has been horrible of late, and right now I'm going through really hard transitional stuff (a lot of which I don't talk about, so you probably shouldn't bother asking). But I don't complain, and I've learned to expect the worst, because when anything better happens, it makes me really, really happy. I'd much rather have a good surprise than a bad surprise. Sure, it's still disappointing when something bad happens, but it's easier to deal with when you weren't expecting much.

Anyhow. Those of you who read my most recent blog before this one (and maybe the first one two; I dunno) will remember I used to end with a quote of the day, and even a "proverb of the day" at one point (like "One Indian less, one extra tortilla", a Honduran proverb I convinced Adam to use in a naturalist-opposing Facebook note one time). Ben just started doing that with his blog, and that made me think of doing it again, so I think I probably will. Today's is from Lemony Snicket, which Seth quoted today when we were talking about my pessimism.

"An optimist, after having his arm bitten off by a shark, will say something like "Oh well. At least nobody will ever ask me whether I am right- or left-handed anymore!" Most people, however, would say something like "AHHHH! MY ARM, MY ARM!"

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII
Transcript finalized.