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Gaming: Tips for PSP as a travel gadget
Fri, 16 Jan 2009

I've always been pretty impressed with the Sony PSP overall; brilliant screen, some good gaming options, music and video playing, and even a crappy yet capable web browser. Still, Sony (like Apple and a million other companies) likes to mess with its customers and so to really get the full value of your purchase you have to 'unlock' the device - imagine buying a car that can only fill half a tank of gas except on Fridays, where all you have to do is fiddle with this warranty removing knob to get the full deal. Anyway, planning for a short trip I have been mulling over what gadgetry would be good to bring along.

Ideally I won't need a gadget at all, but should like some options if I find myself bored with a napping baby. You could try for a micro-laptop such as a 'netbook' or UMPC but they tend to be pretty expensive (you'd cry if it were lost, stolen or crushed in transit) and too large for a pocket; a PDA which can excel at internet communications, ebook and multimedia, but tends not to be a solid game machine for long trips; a smartphone, should you wisk to have people bothering you on your vacation. Options options.

Anyway, for a short non-working trip, the things I'd like the option to do are: ebook reading (avoid carrying cumbersome and heavy books), video watching (from video files, not internet streams), some gaming, and idle web browsing. I'm not worried about email or heavy duty activities in this case. (Should you need to do email or document edittig or whatever, then you may want a netbook or whatever.)

Rearding ebooks, I'm not going to go on a tirade about DRM and locked up data and cost versus real hardcover books and so on - I've probably ranted about that before. Suffice to say I only use open formats such as RTF and HTML and textfiles; for the PSP there are few book reader options and no time for me to write a new one so I fretted a touch, though I eventually found the most excellent BookR open source app. Because it is not Sony-blessed you'll need an unlocked PSP (free and legal, if frowned upon by corporate masters.) This is what I meant above -- if theres no sensible book reader, they shouldn't be locking down a perfectly capable device. Likewise with video -- the built in video tools only let you watch low res video except for Sony UMD bought videos. Thats just evil in my opinion -- artificial limits to encourage you to buy their products.. a clear conflict of interest. Anyway I'll go on about that later in this post.

There are some really goofy attempts to do things on the level, such as an app that reads ebooks and spits out a million image files (multiple images per book page) and you use the PSP built in picture viewer to 'read' the book; you thus don't get a memory of which page you've read to, but it sort of works. BookR is a PDF reader - which provided some reservations up front as most ebooks you get in PDF format are DRM'd to heck - but with PDF now being more or less an open format numerous converters now exist. I used the OpenOffice export-to-PDF option to convert RTF files to PDF, and good to go. I don't know if the application can render 'big' PDFs with charts and embedded crazyness but when it came to various ebooks I've bought in unDRMd format or ones I converted myself, it seems to work very well.

Further, with the PSP screen being very high resolution in the landscape orientation (480x272), you can have a full-width comfortable read of most PDFs .. you just have to scroll down the page as you read, no biggy. The application lets you zoom and pan and rotate so you can accomodate most files, but you don't want to do that when reading. If you're converting to PDF yourself you can of course just use a larger font and set the page-width should you wish to make the reading easier on the eyes. All told though, I loaded up a half dozen books onto the memstick, and I think I'll be fine. This is a big one for me, a device-picking deal breaker, so good to know.

For video I thought to bring along some 'rips' of DVDs I own and videos I've downloaded. Sadly, most gadgets require you to 'transcode' a video into a format they can understand. This is pretty annoying, but I appreciate they're doing the playback via built in hardware and thus conserving battery. Doing video playback purely in software is a battery burner, and can be hard to keep up with the full framerate. (Mind you my older Palm and Windows Mobile devices could do it no problem, suggesting the fine TCPMP Core Codec people did good work.) Anyway, I found a bajillion freeware and open source tools to do the work (such as Universal PSP convert, and PSP Video Converter (pspvc), and others), as well as commercial offerings (from Sony and other third parties.) In the end, the freebie guys tend to work pretty well, and sometimes better. The commercial offerings tend to work easier and have better less cheesie UIs, but also tend to conform to the Sony recommended specs. Sony used to (maybe still does?) require video playback to be lower resolution that the PSP can actually show, to 'encourage' consumers to buy UMD videos on disc, which get full resolution playback. This is a dirty dirty maneauver due to conflict of interest for Sony .. selling a PSP, and also selling UMD videos. As I said, its like buying a car with things built in you can see, but are not allowed to use.. but you still pay for them. No way. So you have to unlock your PSP to get full potential - unlock a device you bought - the joy of the tech sector. Still, if you want to buy something that works well, has batch mode and so forth, there is Avex software which can convert to pretty much every device.

For DVD ripping I ended up picking up DVDFab (there is a free trial download as well), though there are dozens of similar products. DVDFab again honours the lower-than-real resolution, but does a pretty nice job of ripping straight from DVD to PSP ready formats. With their mobile option (a bit pricey altogether, but what the hell..) you can select a target device (ipod, PSP, etc) and it knows the appropriate parameters and voodoo.

In the end I carried a mix of videos at full resolution from open source transcoders, and some not-full-res rips from DVD using commercial apps. All told the PSP shows them both very well and the screen is so sharp (PSP original and PSP-2000, I've not seen a PSP-3000 in person). Win.

For gaming it is also worthy to unlock your PSP. (See a trend .. unlock for ebooks, unlock for superior video playback, unlock for gaming.) Carrying a pile of purchased games on UMDs is fine (I picked up little 5-pack carry widgets to keep UMDs stored nicely, cheap as dirt), but I prefer tech to lead to simplicity, not complexity. I don't wear a watch or carry a manpurse, or keep too much crap in my pockets. There are a few tools that 'rip' copies of game UMDs onto your memorystick. Usually this is for piracy, but stay clear. (I'm a software dev; I sell my stuff. It pays the bills, kthanks :) Anyway, you can rip your games into raw files or a ".iso" disk image using various tools. Games are pretty big, and some keen folks know about removing unwanted files and so forth, but its a big hastle. In the end, you can pick up 4 gig, 8gig or even 16 gig memory sticks, and put a few games on there pretty easily.

Anyway, I didn't bother with much of that; what I was interested in was the PSP's built in PlaystationOne (PSOne, PSX, whathaveyou) emulator. Naturally, just as with Sony's UMD resolution devilry, made it so the built in emulator is meant to play only specifically authorized PS1 games. On the one hand this is probably because they want to ensure the games play well in the PSP and not give you a bad experience, but its also obviously because they wish to re-sell you games you've already bought for a real PS1, and sell PS1 games to people who never had them before -- leverage old product for new revenue is bling bling to a company, of course. Still, with an unlocked PSP it is trivial to use open source tools to transform your PS1 ".iso" disc images into files the PSP built in PS1 emulator can use. Again you tread dark waters to get these tools sometimes, but they're legal and free, just frowned upon by Sony (of course, they just want your money.) Anyway, using a million variations of POPStation you can ready up any of your old PS1 games. I don't have many, only bought a few of the true classics. but more to point.. I converted Civilization 2.

Sure, in my Atari emulator you can play Civilization 1. But Civilization 2 for PS1 was designed for a handheld controller pad, not a computer keyboard, so works pretty well on the PSP. And I mean, its Civilization 2. A few hundred megabytes ,a fraction of your memstick, and you've got Civ in your pocket. Pretty hot.

Naturally, keep a couple good games in there; I keep Lego Indiana Jones in the UMD slot.

All told, the PSP is pretty inexpensive, yet a very capable device. Just you have to unlock it ('mod' with 'custom firmware' or the like) to get half its potential out there. If only Sony would release an official ebook solution.

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Gaming: Sony PSP and TV-out; I mean, glorious uber-nerding near the TV like an 8-year-old.
Thu, 06 Nov 2008

I've always been a fan of 'tactile retro gaming' .. ie: using authentic controls if you can't have the actual device around. ie: As an emulation author you'd think I'd be all for the technology (and I am!), but I also collect arcade machines - the full cabinets - and home consoles. It is always "better" (in terms of game feal) on the real thing (and brutal on your space and room aesthetics), and then on emulation if you don't have access to the real beasties. The reason of course is more genuine controls and also some of the magic -- there is something to be said (and also said against) having to insert and flip over floppy disks on a C64 or Atari 800, and type on a nasty old keyboard that was actually made up from calculator keys (no joke there btw, check your Commodore history friends ;)

Consider also the 'knock' noise Q-bert makes when he falls off the maze; thats actually a physical knock made in the arcade cabinet, and it cannot be replicated in emulation _period._ Nor can you replicate the aging monitor and the cigarette burns on the cabinet. But I digress.

What I'm talking about today is plugging consoles, even modern ones like the Sony PSP, smack into your big screen high def fancy pants TV. Its not a genuine display, but it is certainly in the spirit of that -- how many of us sat on the floor far too close to our big 1970's CRT TVs playing with crummy old joysticks that hurt our little paws. Atari 2600, Colecovision, etc. Those are sitting-in-front-of-TV systems -- thats how they were designed. Its also a nerdy social thing, playing games in the family room on the TV, not up on your laptop in an office or bedroom.

And in these modern times, it means firing up Commodore Vic-20 BASIC on 47" of fracking television. YEAH

In my household we're woefully behind times in the entertainment arena, but finally just acquired a new TV. I mean one that is more than 20 inches, and less than that in years old. So I naturally plugged in a SuperGUN (a Super Nova in fact) to bring up Rolling Thunder (the actual arcade game board) on the TV.. AWESOME.

But for normal people, whats the easiest device to plug into a big fat TV? Sure, your XBox or the like, running old games. Nice. You do that, we don't have any modern consoles :)

I picked up the Sony PSP "component cables" (not the composite ones) and jacked my little handheld PSP into the TV. Being on cables and without remote controls means I'm sitting up there, near the TV, wired to it. Like the good old days. Big TV and me, face to face.

First up -- running my ST emu and Xenon 2 Megablast. OH YEAH. Then Dungeon Master and the mummy that scares your pants off in the dark. OH YEAH.

Next up -- VICE emulator in Vic-20 mode, and Cosmic Cruncher. Spiders of Mars. Omega Race.

And then something from this decade.. Wipeout Pure. Sweet racing action.

The only problem here is the PSP letterboxes games, so you don't get the full fullscreen action (for shame!) like the SuperGUN does. Next up I'll have to try the GP2x and see about getting my ST emu going full screen there. Sexy. Or get yourself an X-Arcade stick for your laptop, or use a STELLA-adapter to plug your 20 year old Atari joystick into your computer. Whatever it takes, man.

An hour of true transcendant geeking. Modern TV runs pretty hot and winter is coming -- plug that old small TV gear into your big hot TV and get your game on!

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PSP: Why 'mod' (reflash with customer/hacked firmware) your PSP?
Tue, 15 Jul 2008

This comes up on occasion, so I thought I might put a reply here rather than in private; doubly so since I've always pushed for folks to consider ethical and legal implications of their actions and have probably ranted on it before. (ie: As software developers, I believe we must be careful to do the Right Thing, since the implications of our work could cause much aggravation or annoyance. This is why it should always default to 'No' to the question 'Do you wish to format your hard drive?' More, it comes up with increasing frequency in todays busy business world and sometimes we have to stand up for the user and consumer, right?)

Anyway, for purposes of this discussion, 'modding' refers to simply reflashing your PSP game consoles firmware.. something Sony will ask you to do all the time, as they publish updates. The trick is, you can reflash it with Sony's official firmwares, or the more questionable firmware 'mods' you can download online.

First.. why would you do it, knowing there is some risk you might do it wrong and 'brick' (kill) your device?

(Note that nowadays there is little risk; even if 'bricked', you can usually unbrick your device trivially.)

There are more things as well, but that should cover why most people do it. I'm not going to go into how, as it can be easy or a right pain depending on your skill set, if you know someone who has done it, and so on. Ask me if you want some instruction and maybe I can sort it out for you but in general I worked out some methods for myself and do that. I don't really follow 'the scene' as it takes a lot of time, and 3/4 of the sceners are idiot kiddies :) (This is one thing I've commented on before.. when you get into some of these things for all the right reasons, you still have to be mindful that others are less kocher than yourself, like going to a seedier hotel.)

Anyway, all the above is just sillyness.. I really only wanted to pass a few notes to a friend, which would be:

So all this verbiage above serves merely to confuse anyone reading. But there you go.

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Gaming: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Sun, 25 Mar 2007

Normally I'd open up a review with a haiku, but I'm pretty beat right now. Permit me to be brief and provide the Pulp-free version of a blog entry.

Yes yes, I'm taking some time to write up something, and also admitting that while caring for this amazing baby, I've found a few minutes here or there to play a game. Not much, but a little :) Permit my sleep-dep to ramble, and don't mind the total lack of structure please :)

Puzzle Quest is a new game for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS; it combines some elements of classic RPG's with a popular puzzle game in a smorgesbord of 2D fun. Interestingly, it works. There are really two or three kinds of RPGs .. the Japanese style (J-RPG) with its emphasis on story and console flavoring, and all the others where you have stats, item databases, and dungeon romping without a plot. Mixing with these formulas tends to annoy the faithful.. but this cuncoction is pretty darned slick. Peanut butter and chocolate.

RPG-wise its fairly simple -- you're a hero, you have to walk around an 'over world' doing quests. Standard issue. A dude in one city (blotch on the map) tells you to kill some monster in some other place (another blotch), so you wander on over and do your business. Theres a fair number of other things you can do to keep things interesting - shop for gear, build a castle, add a dungeon to your castle to capture folks to torture skills out of, and other such things. All is presented with a simple UI to get to the point, rather than hinder you with a lot of effort. Now, a lot of us play RPGs for all the effort but thats not what Puzzle Quest is about -- its a boiled down RPG for the sake of propelling you from encounter to encounter, and to provide a framework for spells and gear and such to make sense. Its like a boardgame version of an RPG, when you move your chit around picking up interesting abilities and gear, then go woop some ass. You don't go into any 3D-dungeons or the like.

Combat and research and such are all performed through variants of one puzzle game. Folks will be most familiar with it as Bejewelled, but that game certainly isn't the origin of that puzzle style. Anyway, while in those games the goal is simply to clear the board by matching alike pieces, in Puzzle Quest there is infinite depth built atop this base. Matching coloured gems removes them from the board and gives your character mana with which spells can be cast. Clear red gems to get red (fire) mana for instance. Clearing other items causes direct damage to the enemy, or gives you cash, or experience for levelling up. As you level up you get new abilities (depending on your class), and all this mana is used to fire off spells. For instance.. match 3 skulls to cause some damage directly to the enemy, or collect some (say) red and green mana and fire off an attack spell or effect.

The Warrior class for instance has abilities that turn this mana into direct attacks usually, or influence the board to effect it; ie: One ability clears a small region of the board (the squares around the target square), which can be handy so you can wait for a certain board layout and whammo it rather than working piece by piece. The Druid class is more healing oriented than direct damage, so spends its time manipulating the board, delaying the enemies moves, or healing itself. Where a Druid plods along doing slower damage to the enemy, or messing up his attacks, the Warrior is all about trying to pounce on the skull-blocks or do damage spells. Less survival in weird encounters, but everything moves along quickly. Fights are longer for the healer, but more 'under control' so gameplay feels different. Theres some depth to it .. not just the same thing over and over a la Bejewelled.. here you're working towards building sufficient mana types to fire off a spell or combo, while looking ahead to poach the pieces the enemy might need. Set yourself up with a multi-move set of combos, or work on building experience and gold for levelling up instead of going right for the enemy throat. Enemies vary in ability -- a spider can 'web' your character so you lose some turns, while a thief might steal some of your gold or do surprise attacks. All these many things occur on the game board. Cool stuff.

All in all, you're spending 90% of your time playing a Bejewelled-like game that works within the questing and adventuring framework familiar to J-RPGs. Nothing too serious, but pretty darned entertaining. Lots of cool items to buy and things to do.

And since each match is quick (5-20mins), you can play in the middle of the night between bouts of crying. Baby crying I mean. Usually, anyway ;)

I like it. I like serious RPGs usually, but I've not the time to read the back of the box of one these days. This hits the RPG and puzzle fetish in weird yet satisfyingly kinky ways.

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PSP: I just want to know -- wheres the mecha?!
Wed, 22 Nov 2006

Usually I try to have something vaguely amusing (to me ;), informative, remotely useful, or at least personal to say. But today, this time I just want to ask something. As someone who played electronic games and video games in the 80s and 90s:

Wheres the Wing Commander equivilent? I mean, don't people still want to fly a small space-faring fighter against large capital ships? Think Star Wars and running down the trench with enemy fighters on your tail, turrets lobbing heavy munitions youe way -- fun! Descent? (Well, I could finish porting it..) Those of us from the golden 80s watched "The Last Starfighter" and we want to shoot something down. Hell, make it a Starblazer's tie-in for the retro-anime crowd.

In the same grain, we played Battletech on the tabletop and watched Robotech on the tube, and endless reems of anime mecha - giant robots, beam weaponry, machine guns, stomping enemy buildings and the almighty Death From Above jumpjets.. we need the rebirth of Mechwarrior. Bring it.

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Gaming: A good time for PSP gamers
Tue, 07 Nov 2006

So much geekery to talk about of late, and yet so little time. Apologies to any non-gamers who may be reading ;) Another quick entry scrawled out on the poor phone!

With the initial launch of the PSP few classy titles were presented -- Lumines and Wipeout:Pure were excellent for day-zero releases but mostly there were lackluster titles. In the following months not many platform-making titles became available, though some good and not-so-good games strolled leisurely out to the poolside. Grand Theft Auto made a nice splash, and it was nice to have SOCOM and Katamari finger-crampers but oldie titles like Lemmings only helped to keep the flailing nostrils at the waters surface. Everyone was anticipating the big-named titles to dive in .. the titles people would line up for. Sony was busy stabbing themselves in the back, neck, cranium and lowly pereneum at every opportunity, but the PSP division struggled to show some glimmer of the companies past.. when they were respected.

I would hazard to say that these months leading up to Christmas are what PSP gamers have been waiting for. Some great titles are on the shelves right now, and more to come.

I should make an effort to mini-review the titles I have -- without having too too many games I do have some doozies; Field Commander is still a great little time waster for the tactical wargamer, and I've already reviewed Ghosts and Goblins. Fine games. Mercury and others will have to wait.. But without getting to proper reviews let met give you a couple synopsis, on the off chance it'll help with your Christmas shopping. (Can you believe malls have their decorations up already?)

Recent releases

Killzone: Liberation -- I've only fiddled with a friends hot-off-the receiving-truck, but it looks to be excellent so I'll be picking it up the second I see one on the shelf over at EBGames. Not a first person game like the home console brand, but an isometric-perspective smooth motion run-and-shooter. Good looking artwork, some strategy elements, some puzzle solving. Winner.

Dungeon Siege -- listed as just being sent from the factories and in-store soon, I'll be keeping my eyes open. Too many titles, not enough free time to open them, or money to buy them :)

Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception -- a combat non-sim oriented flight-sim. I don't recall modern fighters carrying a payload of 40 air-to-air missiles, but thats not what this title is about. Air to air dogfights, ground missions and stealth under the radar .. classy flight-sim fun without the bother of watching the cockpit controls. Really just a distant cousin to arcade pseudo-3d shooters, but fun all the same. Sometimes I really really really love a very accurate flight-sim that includes a 3" thick manual (I'm looking at you Falcon 4.0!), but with life only giving you 10 minute chunks of time here or there, you take what you can handle, and Ace Combat is pretty darned entertaining.

Snoopy Vs The Red Baron -- yes, I was amazed as well, that I'd even look at such a title; but after checking the previews at the big game websites (IGN and Gamespot etc), I thought I'd check it out; like Ace Combat, but in a cartoony cute way and set with WW1 aircraft; chasing the baron around with Woodstock (the bird!) powered missiles and shooting at ground-targets like drilling-machines trying to knock over the rootbeer factory.. great rediculous fun!

Medal of Honor: Heroes -- first person shooters are hard to pull off with a handheld.. trust me, I mucked around when porting Quake to PDAs enough to know. Medal of Honor does pretty well here.. best so far on the PSP really. Analog stick to move, and using the right-side 'd-pad' buttons to point your head (turn, look up, etc) works pretty well, while using the triggers for firing. There are many options to play with but thats the default configuration. Anyway, after only playing the first mission I'm looking forward to tossing some grenades and sniping or blasting through the trenches. (Apologies to real veterans for using such terminology.. I'm in a hurry here :) Still, I'm a little ashamed to talk about a war themed action 3D shooter right before Remembrance Day.)

Star Trek: Tactical Assault -- I wish this was more in depth like Star Fleet Battles (the tabletop wargame), but I think it will be an arcade shooter. Still, its set in Kirks time, which warms my spirit.

Worms -- probably a so-so title but I always enjoyed the simple play of the Worms (and Snails clones on PDAs) games. Like Solitaire or Bejewelled, these are simple but very playable classics. Not tried it yet, but its on the shelf already.

There are a few others too.. X-Men, Marvel Heroes, Battlezone, Lumines II, Capcom Classics, Taito Remix, SOCOM II, Eragon, Metal Slug Anthology..

Good times.

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PSP: Review of Star Wars Lego II: The Original Trilogy
Tue, 10 Oct 2006

Getting a new car, working long hours, visiting with family etc etc has conspired to keep me from finishing a few blog entries that are nearly done - yes, sometimes I hack away at an entry over the space of a week in scraps of time; not that this imparts editorial quality, just so you understand me.) I've got a new gp2x project three-quarters done and some reviews for that little platform, but alas you shall have to bear with me for this quickly written review.

But first, as I must do for any review:

Pulling droids apart
Force-flinging them all about
Beats Mario Kart

Star Wars Lego II: The Original Trilogy is really really good. A fusion of action-shooting, platforming and puzzling could be bad - but not here - and with a Star Wars plotline is almost too much to handle. Further, with the Lego theme thrown in you've pretty much taken even the most half-shaven Matrix-wannabee geeks brought, Spartacus-like, to their knees.

See more ...

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Gaming: A couple quick Sony PSP game reviews, posed as haiku
Mon, 18 Sep 2006

Perhaps I'm onto something here - that all reviews should be preceeded by a summary haiku? After reading on, there will be a resoundingh No! I am sure..

Read on for quickie reviews of Bomberman and Ultimate Ghouls and Ghosts for the Sony PSP.

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PSP: How-to homebrew on a recent PSP (firmware 2.6 say), Or, Downdating, Downgrading, Whatever
Tue, 11 Jul 2006

When buying a car, I'm sure most people assume it can offroad if necessary - to park on the grass for a concert or party or go game hunting in the deep savannah .. at least to go where they tell it. Likewise, when you buy a Phillips VCR or DVD player you can safely expect it to play home movies, or videos published by someone other than Phillips.

Another long entry typed in on a cellphone :) This one is light on details since I'm not trying to be technical or delve into the many obscure interesting things going on over the last year or two.

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PSP: Quick review of Brando's PSP d-pad replacement, Or, Celebrating Canada Day with Gradius IV
Fri, 30 Jun 2006

As far as mobile gaming hardware goes, the PSP is pretty sexy - Bender in a pretty dress sexy. Some might dispute its software collection but to the casual wanna-be gamer like me, its good a lot of goodness that I'll never have time for. Now now, hold your horses, Sony need beatings for releasing a rootkit, making low quality audio/video components, the entire PS3 being late and seriously overpriced fiasco, and eating babies - but the PSP is itself an island of calm within an otherwise filthy ecosystem. Anyway, as with anything else when you have time for something you want it to be well spent -- we consumers should nolonger tolerate noise in the TV signal or the junk that Terry Brooks spews out onto paper, or any sequal to Highlander. The PSP is sexy, but it has its flaws - and Brando Workshop has found a way to fix one of them. (Alas no, they did not bomb Sony HQ.)

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Day by Day: A Quick Review of Field Commander for Sony PSP
Wed, 31 May 2006 Field Commander

May 22nd

Few things are better then the smell of freshly cut grass or the spring breeze in your hair; the tree and bushes have been neatly trimmed, the grass edged, the railing brushed, sanded and rust-painted. Last and most importantly, the barbecue - like the Death Star - is fully operational so I sit here smugly before you after the first burger-and-dog weekend of the season.

A week passes; no time to finish that blog post but no way I'll let a Deathstar reference slide into bit-bucket-oblivion.

May 31st

The tired mind wanders, but it is thankful that life has more or less gotten itself under control again.

As Popeye might say (were he not up on steroid charges), I yam what I yam. And whats I yam [sic] is someone who once played far too many tabletop wargames as a kid and as such must pay taxes to Sid Meiers for Civilation at every opprtunity; life being what it is, those opportunities are months or years apart so I'm always hoping something will come around and let me scratch the old itch - but sadly without the need to get together a crowd of people over a table in a dank basement, or consume 12 hours of time per game. I'll buy every new version of Civilization that shows up (and yay for Galactic Civilization II my friends) and dream about finding a group of people for Axis and Allies, but we all must settle for the table scraps we can get. So a moment of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri here, or Thief III there.

Field Commander for Sony PSP

As all know, mobile gadgets will always have a special place in my heart (I blame Batman.) and the Sony PSP is no exception; sure, while I wish my Treo 650 could simply do everything, no PDA or smartphone to date can really pull off mobile-gaming so we must always fall to carrying a Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS or PSP around should we wish to indulge on the go. (I do enjoy sticking it to the man once in awhile by cracking out Sega Genesis emulation on a Zodiac during a meeting.)

Field Commander, the latest rock-paper-scissors game, scratches the itch.

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PSP: A Brief Review of GTA: Liberty City Stories
Fri, 11 Nov 2005

I never really played the previous GTA titles (though I did get in some multiplayer GTA1 and GTA2 top-down racing in the past) - Vice City seemed impenetrable to me as I just walked around not knowing what to do (and beating up cops and pimps didn't really scream "fun!" to me.) People have been raving about the series for so long that I thought I'd best take a peek with its most recent incarnation (on the PSP.) - yes, I know, the PSP is Sony and I'm boycotting them, but I did recently get the device so I might as well make some use of it.

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PSP: Armistice Day, and, PSP Specification Confusion
Fri, 11 Nov 2005

Most importantly, this is Remembrance Day and I'm trying to locate someone to give me a poppy; they seem hard to come by today for some reason (which makes me a little ashamed as I didn't go find one yesterday or earlier.) Of course, I'll find one over lunch (yes, I write this at work today which is unusual since I reserve blogging for a home activity... but this topic is important.)

Who observes Remembrance Day? Obviously the Commonwealth nations do, but what of these war-torn countries in the middle-east? I'm sure they've got plenty of days of mourning and the like. Do immigrants to Commonwealth countries pick it up, as they do Christmas? At any rate, I have always sworn that when we finally have children I will impress the importance of this day upon them.. that they will remember their forebears who fought in the Great Wars and other endeavers, and that they will know What Not To Do -- that they will put heavy thoughts into embarking into such terrible activities as war. With things like the Iraq invasion going on, there is no better time to remember what was given for our freedom, and to think on what is being done now with heavy heart.

Read on for some PSP specifications.

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Reviews: PSP's Coded Arms, Ridge Racer
Sun, 28 Aug 2005

Its been cloudy and/or rainy for each of the last 10 or 15 days, which probably helped lead me to acquiring this shiny ol' PSP. Today mind you has been exceptional.. a day that makes you glad to be alive, enjoying the simple pleasures. Talked to my mother on the phone (something we all should do more of; I really should be talking to my grandmother as she won't last much longer, being 91 or so..), went out for lunch with my wife, and sat in the killer-hot sun and breeze for nearly an hour. You know its a good day when you can't even be bothered to pick up a book or magazine or comic sitting right beside the sun lounger...

Last night I was waiting some lengthy computer work to wrap itself up, so started fiddling with the PSP. So far the device is pretty nifty, though as in my original 'preview' I noted that its likely doomed to 'familiarity' - to ports and franchises, while the Nintendo DS may get some original titles like Nintendogs. Fine by me, since I barely play anything and thus its all new to me. Anyway, some good titles so far (Untold Legends), and some bad ones.. about evenly on both sides. Hopefully as Christmas approaches, new titles will pop out.

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Gaming: Previewing the Sony PSP
Mon, 22 Aug 2005

Updated Aug 22 2005

Alright, so I said I'd never pick up a PSP as Sony are such [explative]'s .. but after all these months (since March! ;) I could handle it no more - and this is one impressive piece of kit. I've entitled this post a 'preview' since I'm still in the gushing honeymoon phase of the purchase and it wouldn't be fair to call it a review without me trashing it all to heck ;)

As I've said many times, I'm more a fan of gaming -- I've not the time to play so can't really call myself a gamer (and I tend to get bored of a title after playing it for an evening anyway, which makes it an expensive hobby.) Of course, retrogaming and collecting arcade cabinets never gets old, so what can I say? Writing a game engine is entertaining, and Halflife 2 was good.. but I just can't blow a night away with Metal Gear. Anyway, we've got a GBA but I've never much bothered with it since it just seems overly dumbed-down for me - simple games are good, but I'm a Civilization III player so if I'm going to futz around for an evening I'd like Final Fantasy: Tactics and not Tactics Advance. If I'm futzing around for 20 minutes in a line waiting at the bank, then I'm fiddling with my PDA instead - I'm not going to be carrying around a game console. (Not to say its just for kids, but I don't commute via subway or train.. I drive. And its just for kids ;) (So yes, I'm a wannabe-gamer whose really just work-obsessed :)

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