Archive for December, 2005

open source gaming…

Thursday, December 8th, 2005

As this site is graciously hosted by ibiblio, a huge online library of free information (including software, music, art, literature… a lot of free stuff), I should probably talk about something free once in a while. So here’s something cool: free video-game cabinet games. Got an old JAMMA cabinet that you modified to run MAME? Well these guys are interested in making new games for your old stand up machine. They are also interested if you have any games you want to promote and give away. Link via BoingBoing who call it “open-source.” But I couldn’t find the source for either game they have on the site right now, so is it really open source?

(Full disclosure: ibiblio was also gracious enough to give me a job recently… perhaps my grad school years won’t be so poor after all.)

escapist…

Wednesday, December 7th, 2005

Apparently, this site has been around since the middle of the year but I’m just now finding out about it so dammit I’m posting it.

The Escapist features the one thing that a lot of gaming sites lack, stories. More of a magazine than a game site, it features articles written around a central theme each week more about he experience of gaming rather than just reviews and rants. I would like to write a piece like this sometime.

And hey, the web designer in me LOVES the site design (though it could be more user friendly).

Check it out. And let me know what you think. Do we need more stuff like this?

dan, master of updates…

Tuesday, December 6th, 2005

Sorry folks. Things have slowed down around here. You see I’ve been spending my time trying to get back into school and strangely enough they let me back in at UNC. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let me back into my old dorm room but they were gracious enough to let me attend some SILS classes if I don’t make too much of a fuss about it. So lately my life has revolved around finding jobs and other means of gathering cash so I can live in student poverty for the next two years. Also, I’ve complimented that with heavy drinking around various Carolina games because really that’s what higher education is all about.

But no worries, I have still found time to play games. Why just last week I managed to waste plenty of my life playing the dreadful Shadow the Hedgehog. The idea of on-the-fly allegiance to good or bad is an interesting idea… too bad the game is too frantic to let you make that decision. And could we please decide whether you want me to be fast, or to defeat as many enemies as possible, cause the two don’t really mesh well.

Luckily, I also picked up Need for Speed: Most Wanted from Gamefly which is a lot of fun although the AI of the cops and other racers can be a little spotty. Sometimes you’ll mess up and they’ll run a perfect rolling block on you, other times they’ll take a wrong turn for what looks like no reason. Odd. I also like the wide open levels. While you can just go to a menu screen and pick your next race, I prefer to just drive around the city and follow the map to the next challenge. Trying to get to your next destination while the cops are on the lookout for your best ride really enhances the experience.

So you see I’m not giving up on this blog yet. As long as I can still afford that Gamefly subscription (and if they can stop pissing me off… that’s for another entry) I’ll have something to talk about. Even if I’m just talking to myself…