Hiryuu's Thoughts

Dingoo A320 Review - SNES Emulation

2010-01-02T10:52:00.005-06:00

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is one of my all time favorite systems. I remember getting mine for Christmas a year after its launch along with a copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It quickly became one of my most cherished consoles. This being said, I've had quite a collection of SNES ROMs laying around to try out!

ROM Management

I decided to only load ROMs that were in English for now, to the ROM count is around 800~900. I placed them in alphabetical folders under Games\SNES.

Emulation

Much is to be said on SNES emulation on the Dingoo A320. On one hand, it DOES load almost every game (excluding those with special chips, which I will touch on in a bit,) but it also has teh buggiest frame skip I've ever dealt with in an emulator. First off, I grabbed Super Mario World. it's a game that most SNES users are familiar enough with and one that I've played more recently on my SNES at home. I was a bit disappointed. First off, I left the frame skip option on AUTO and turned the volume up to 90%. Then I let the intro play. The music sounded too fast at times and too slow at others. The sound effects sounded horrible and the game was dropping frames like crazy! I played through about half of level one and went straight to the frame skip option. After setting it to skip only one frame, I played through the rest of the level. The game was no longer skipping, but it felt slightly too sluggish. On level 2 I set the frame skip to 2. Now the speed was fine, but the game felt slightly "jerky."

This is how most of the SNES ROMs went. First, try with AUTO, then 1, then 2. Anything more than 2 made the game so jerky that it was no longer enjoyable. For the most part, games like F-Zero, Tecmo's Secret of the Stars, Gradius III, and R-Type III ran great on AUTO or 1. Also, Earthbound ran well on 2 without giving me a headache. Some games, however, such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy II/IV , and Final Fantasy III/VI had issues that were almost unforgivable. With The Legend of Zelda, the rain at the beginning made me rip my headphones off due to the loud screeching noise it made (which, by the way, completely turned the music off.) Also, there were graphical glitches when changing rooms and sometimes the tiles on the floor would turn solid black. For both Final Fantasy games the sound was not emulated well and the games were riddled with graphical glitches. This goes for Chrono Trigger too.

One last note on frame skipping on the Dingoo. What ever you set the setting to on one game carries over to the next. So if you set Super Mario World to 2 and then jump to Super Metroid, it will still be set to 2, meaning you have to go in to the options on each game every time you switch a game and set it to where you think it needs to be. This is how ALL the Dingoo emulators are, but most of the time you will leave the setting alone in the other emulators.

On top of the overall bugs listed above, no special chips are emulated. Meaning, no Super FX chip for games like Star Fox. No DSP chips for games like Megaman X2 and X3. Games like Super Mario RPG are also out of the question. Secret of Mana and the translated Seiken Densetsu have font issues rendering them unplayable. There are several other games that will not play list here, for those interested.

Overall, the SNES emulation is poor, which is disappointing for those who remember and love the system. On a side note, for those running Dingux (a port of Linux that can be dual booted with the original Dingoo OS,) there is a version of SNES9x that plays most of these games (with the exception of the special chip games,) at better speeds and with better sound. It's well worth a look in to Dingux for those who don't mind taking extra time to set up their Dingoos! I'll be covering more on Dingux in the future...

Links:

List of recommended Fram Skip options
Non-Playable games on the Dingoo A320

Dingoo A320 Review - Firmware Upgrade and NES Emulation

2009-12-30T10:11:00.005-06:00

Alright, now for the real fun! Sure the basic features of the Dingoo are great, but the real meat of this system is its emulation capabilities.

Before we get started on how these run and what is needed to run them, I want to cover upgrading the firmware of the system. Firmware upgrades on the Dingoo are incredibly easy. First, obtain the latest update file (as of 12/29/09 this is 1.2 and can be found here.) Open the compressed file and extract the a320.HXF file to the root of your dingoo. Now, make sure your battery is charged and unplug the unit from your PC. Turn the system off. Hold the power slide up and the D-pad down until the screen shows that it is updating the firmware. Let go of the buttons and wait. It only takes a few minutes. That's that! Now for the good stuff...

Preinstalled are emulators for the following systems:

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (SG/MD)
Neo-Geo Arcade Games
Capcom Arcade Games (Both CSP1 and CSP2)
Nintendo Gameboy Advance (GBA)

I'm going to break down each system in the order listed above. I'll explain where I placed my ROM images and how the emulators reacted. For the most part, emulation is near perfect on some systems and disheartening on others.

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

ROM Management

I first took all of my ROM images and placed them in separate folders depending on their alphabetic order. For example, I placed all ROM's starting with a number and the letter A in a folder labeled "#-A." Normally I would just throw all 800+ games in one folder, but there is no page up/down on the Dingoo (meaning one would have to scroll through countless titles just to get to, say, Super Mario Bros.) I then placed all of these folders in to a folder labeled NES. The NES folder was then copied on to the Dingoo under the Games folder. Done!

Emulation

Being an old school gamer, I grew up on games like Super Mario Bros and Castlevania. This made my first two choices of which ROM's to test easy. I fired up the Dingoo and highlighted the "Interesting Game" option on the menu. From there, I selected my NES folder, then S folder. I found Super Mario Bros. and loaded it up. From the very start I wanted to see my options before trying out the game. Once the title popped up I pressed the Start and Select button at the same time. For Dingoo emulation, this brings up emulator options. I turned my sound up to 90% and checked my button configuration. A quick click on continue and the game was right back up. The game played flawlessly. I noticed no lag and the sound, while "tinny", was never too slow or too fast. I was able to run through Mario in about six and a half minutes using warps and found the controls were just as tight as my old NES sitting back home.

A quick jump out of Super Mario an in to Castlevania... just as good! The emulation felt spot on, though I noticed the colors seemed almost a little too bright. This could just be me comparing it to my LCD TV's at home or from how the games look on my computer monitor. I played for a good half hour, getting the crap beat out of me as usual. After this, I tried several games from Tetris to Contra to The Legend of Zelda, all played just as I would expect. After a good forty titles, I've not had a single one fail to load or show in signs of weakness. Even Rygar and Castlevania III (both known for glitches on other emulators,) ran great!

Overall, NES emulation is near perfect on the Dingoo. Some of the music sounds a bit off and could use some work, plus, if there was slow down and flicker in the original NES, it's still around on the Dingoo. Still, as far as the NES goes, it almost makes the system pay for itself!

Next post... SNES

Dingoo A320 Review - Overview

2009-12-30T09:05:00.011-06:00

The Dingoo A320 is a small hand held video game system capable of emulating a number of older consoles and arcade games right out of the box. I had first heard of this system while surfing around thinkgeek.com. After about a month of looking at it and reading up on it and its rival, the GP2x Wiz, I decided to buy one and try it out for myself.

I ordered my Dingoo from ThinkGeek on 12/26 and selected overnight UPS so I could play around with it while things were slow during the holidays. It shipped on the 28th and I received it right on time on the 29th. The packaging was a cardboard box with a cardboard stand on the inside cradling the unit. Underneath the stand was a mini USB cable, a pair of ear buds, and an AC to USB wall charger.

The system itself it smaller than a slim PSP and a bit larger than a Gameboy Micro. The buttons and D-pad feel sturdy, though I'm not the biggest fan of the "shoulder" buttons. For these, instead of opting for a more traditional shoulder L and R, they chose to place two buttons on the top. While these have a nice sturdy feel and a nice "click" to them, they feel awkward compared to say a PSP or a Nintendo DS. To power the system on, there is a slide on the right hand side which can be pushed up to power on, or slid down to place the buttons in a HOLD state (much like a portable CD Player or older Walkman.) Below the power slide is a standard headphone jack. on the bottom of the system are two shiny speakers (though their sound quality seems to lack any bass what-so-ever,) an AV-Out jack (to hook the system up to a TV,) and a MiniSD slot. The MiniSD slot is HC compatible up to 32 GB, though it's an odd choice seeing how most portable devices have gone on to use its smaller cousin (MicroSD.) An adapter to make a MicroSD fit a MiniSD works just fine, however. On the Left side of the system are two small holes. One houses a MIC for voice recording, the other a Reset button (much like a PDA in case of the system hanging and becoming unusable.)

Booting the system up brings up a menu scheme much like that of Sony's PSP. Actually, seeing as how this product is made in China, there is a good chance this is a deliberate choice. The menus are easy enough to navigate and all of the base features (without me loading any ROM images or applications,) worked nicely. The FM radio works great at my house or outside, though in my office, the reception is horrible. The system came packaged with several videos in various formats and the quality was fairly good for such a small hand held. The MP3 and WMA playback was great through the use of my headphones, though suffered in quality using the built-in speakers. Picture viewing was easy, and the ebook reader worked like it should (displaying text and allowing me to read it!) The system came with several "3D" games preinstalled, the best, in my opinion, being 7 Days (a survival horror game much like the Alone in the Dark series.)

Overall, the system held up to it's basic promises. The next step was to update the firmware, throw on some ROMs and try my hand at it's boasted emulators! I'll cover these in a follow up shortly in a separate post where I will also outline the steps to updating the firmware, and adding more native emulators to the mix. All with links to the files you will need!

Tales of Terror from Tokyo (DVD Review)

2009-03-29T07:52:00.004-06:00

The latest movie to come in from my Netflix queue was Tales of Terror from Tokyo Vol 1. This DVD contains several short "reenactments" of Japanese ghost stories/urban legends in and around Tokyo. While the production quality is fairly low, each short segment was entertaining. For those out there who are not familiar with how the Japanese view ghost, spirits, and the paranomral overall will probably find this DVD not all that frightening. Some of the stories are a bit creepy, like a spirit pretending to be a small girls aunt to gain access to her home, while other stories are just plain odd, like one where people who walk down a certain street at night suddenly have their clothes on backwards. Overall, the DVD is a great view if you love Asian horror, or just want to see what another culture views as the paranormal. For all those who are hardcore Western Horror fans, I would recommend that you pass this one up.

Amazon.com Link to this movie

Update on One Missed Call US vs JP

2009-03-25T19:45:00.000-06:00

So over a year later I finally watched the American version of One Missed Call. In my humble opinion, it was terrible. I will give them credit for TRYING to to stick with the original story line and keeping a few key elements the same, but I cannot forgive them for taking a relatively unnerving, creepy movie and turning it in to a shallow teenage summer horror flick. If you've still not seen this movie, PLEASE pass the American version and pick up a Japanese copy. While you are at it, go ahead and grab its direct sequel, One Missed Call 2, though I will warn you NOT to pick up the third Japanese movie, One Missed Call Final, because it is utter nonsense.

A friend of mine reminded me of Cibo Matto...

2008-12-09T22:19:00.001-06:00

Singers of songs like "Know Your Chick"

...

YAY! Obama won!

2008-11-05T00:00:00.001-06:00

I usually keep to myself about politics, but I voted for Obama, and though my state did not carry him through, he won nonetheless! Well, I'm sleepy. I'll post more later.

Man, am I horrible at updating...

2008-09-17T21:20:00.001-05:00

Wow. I've not posted anything on this site in two months! I guess I need to update more often. Anywho, I will probably add a few movie reviews soon and talk about the M3 DS Real card I bought several months ago for my DS Lite.

Text Messages from the Dead!

2008-07-06T21:50:00.001-05:00

This woman must have the best cell phone network ever...

"A Lancashire man whose house has a chilling reputation for poltergeist activity claims he is being haunted by text messages from his dead wife, the Blackpool Gazette reports.

Frank Jones, 59, was obliged 12 years ago to have his home in Windsor Avenue, Thornton, exorcised after a malevolent spirit dubbed "The Thing", which had already driven one terrified family from the house, turned its attentions on him and his wife and kids.

In 1971, previous residents the Ross family told the Gazette how The Thing had "pulled at their bed covers while they were asleep" and that they "sensed a vile smell and felt something breathing in their ears".

Jones moved in 20 years ago, solidly sceptical about the legendary presence, but "soon changed his mind". He recounted: "I just thought they were imagining it. But there was a lot of banging and an earthy smell in the house. Then one night I was lying in bed and a mist came across the room. I wanted to shout out at it, but I couldn't get my words out. My face seemed to be paralysed. It all got too much for me when that happened."

Jones's daughter, Maureen, 30, confirmed that The Thing had turned on taps and "ransacked" the house. She said: "You think people are exaggerating until you experience it. I was home alone one evening and suddenly heard these footsteps coming up the stairs. They went into my dad's bedroom and then I heard all the cupboards banging open. It sounded like burglars."

Cue an exorcist from Fleetwood Spiritualist Church, who "cleansed" the property of the spirit "trapped between two worlds".

Peace then reigned in Windsor Avenue until five years ago, when Jones suffered a double tragedy - the death of his son Steven, 32, from a brain tumour and wife Sadie, 69, three months later from a heart attack.

Jones explained: "Just after Sadie died I came home and I felt like I didn't want to go in the house. I got a missed call on my mobile, but it didn't ring. The call was from my own home number, but there was nobody in the house. Then when I went inside there was a smell like cigarettes which Sadie used to smoke and the smell of her perfume."

Jones says his family has since received strange SMS messages which they believe to be from Sadie. He concluded: "She always had a mobile with her. We buried her with her phone. There have been messages with words Sadie would say but there's no number."

Story found on The Register

Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Taisen OG Saga

2008-05-28T12:46:00.002-05:00

I just got a copy of Mugen no Frontier for the DS! It comes out in Japan tomorrow, May 29th. I'm posting a promo video of the game below.

Wii Homebrew - SNES Emulation a la Twilight Hack (Tutorial Part 2 of 2)

2008-04-08T08:30:00.003-05:00

So now we have this great tool for loading homebrew applications and really want to play those 100% legal public domain ROM images like these ;) So let's gather the requirements listed in part one and get started!

First off, let's uncompress the SNES9x zip to a folder. Inside this new folder should be files labeled as snesgx.dol and snesgx.elf. Copy snesgx.elf to the root of your SD Card. Rename snesgx.elf to boot.elf.

Now, create a folder on your SD Card called roms. This is the folder you need to place your uncompressed SNES ROMs in, so go ahead and put your ROMs in there!

Now we are ready to go! So power on your Wii, place your SD Card in to your Wii, plug in a Gamecube controller, and insert your Twilight Princess game. Start up Zelda and select the first save file to play. Either talk to the man in front of you or start walking backwards. As soon as you do either of these, your screen should turn black and you'll see text on the screen. Once that is done, the emulator screen will be up and ready to go!

So here are some notes on using the emulator. First off, to play a ROM, you have to go to Load New Game. Once there, go to Load from Front. Choose your ROM and press A. Once you are back on the main menu, select Play Game to start playing. To return to the emulator's menu, press Z+R at the same time.

Saving: Alright, to my knowledge, there are no save states, so you will have to save the old school way on games such as Earthbound and Chrono Trigger. This is done through SRAM. Here is where the 3rd party memory card comes in (Nintendo brand cards do not work! I use a cheap one by Interact.) Place your memory card in to either Slot A or Slot B. I'm going to use Earthbound for the following example. Once you save in Earthbound, press Z+R. At the menu, go to SRAM Manager. Now, choose your memory card slot and then choose Save SRAM. Back out to the main menu and choose Play Game to continue playing. You will have to do this EVERY TIME you want to save your game to the memory card.

So, your files are saved, and you've shut down the Wii. Next time you load the emulator, load your ROM and head to the SRAM Manager. Choose Load SRAM to load your save from your memory card. Now when you select Play Game on the main menu, your save files will be present.

That's about it! So happy gaming! There are more homebrew games and even a multiloader for various homebrew projects at WiiBrew. I hope this tutorial helped you out! Either way, leave me a comment and let me know what you think! I'll correct anything that is mistyped and credit you for it.

Wii Homebrew - SNES Emulation a la Twilight Hack (Tutorial Part 1 of 2)

2008-04-08T08:17:00.004-05:00

Today, I’m going to cover how to successfully use the “Twilight Hack” to load up SNES9x on your Wii without having to mod your system. I will be breaking this down in to two parts. Part one will cover the Twilight Hack, while part two will cover how to get SNES9x up and running. But first, the disclaimer!

WARNING: I take no responsibility for any damage that may occur to your Wii, SD Card, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess game, or any other peripheral they may be damaged during this use of this hack or its implementation. Also, for the record, I take no responsibility for any damage that may be caused to your computer (though I don’t see how that would be possible,) or any data lost on your PC, SD Card, or Wii.

EMULATION WARNING: Loading any commercial ROM image that has not been declared public domain by its copyright holders is illegal. Looking at Nintendo’s official stance on emulation, it is also illegal to obtain ANY ROM image off of the internet, whether you own the game or not. I would like to point out that I will in no way help you find ROM images to play with SNES9x unless they are 100% public domain.

Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s get started! Here’s what you need to make this work:

For the Twilight Hack:

1x Zelda: Twilight Princess

1x Wii

1x SD Card (this needs to be SD, not Micro or Mini SD in an SD converter.)

1x Twilight Hack (link)

1x SD Card Reader for your PC

For SNES9x:

1x SNES9x Files (link)

1x Gamecube Controller

1x 3^rd Party Gamecube Memory Card (Optional and only used to save SRAM.)

NOTE: There are other methods of saving SRAM such as using a USBGecko or an SDGecko, but I will only be covering 3^rd Party Gamecube Memory Cards since they are the cheapest route and that’s what I’m using!

We will only be dealing with the Twilight Hack at this moment, so let’s get started!

Before starting this hack, I recommend that you backup your Zelda save to a different SD Card than the one used for this hack, since you will be deleting your save file on your Wii.

The first thing you need to do is look at your Zelda disc. There should be a ring that reads something like this: RVL-RZDE-0A-0 USA. Your disc may differ slightly depending on where you live and when you bought the disc. Here is the table from the WiiBrew site:

Different Versions
Region	Inner circle text	File
Europe/Australia	RVL-RZDP-0A-0 JPN	rzdp0.bin
Asia	RVL-RZDJ-0A-0 JPN	rzdj0.bin
America	RVL-RZDE-0A-0 JPN	rzde0.bin
America	RVL-RZDE-0A-0 USA	rzde0.bin
America	RVL-RZDE-0A-2 USA	rzde2.bin

Now that you know which file to play with, uncompress your Twilight Hack zip file to a folder (the folder name does not matter.) Open the folder that had the Twilight Hack files in it and find the file that matches your disc from the chart above.

Now, place your SD Card in to your card reader on your PC. First, let’s see what format the card is in. It needs to be formatted to FAT16 to work properly. So, double-click on My Computer and then right-click on your SD Card. Left-click Properties. If the File System reads FAT16, you are good to go! If not, click OK, then right-click on your SD Card and left-click format. Make sure the file system has FAT16 selected and format your card. This will delete everything on your card, so back it up first!

Open your SD Card and create the following folder: private. Open the private folder and create a folder called wii. Now open the wii folder and create a folder called title. Now, depending on your disc, open the title folder and make a folder called RZDx. Only, replace the x with E, P, or J depending on your disc. So mine would read: /private/wii/title/RZDE. Now, copy your .bin file from the Twilight Hack folder into your RZDx folder (make sure it matches your disc!) Once the file is copied, rename the file on your SD Card to data.bin.

Now, turn on your Wii and delete your Zelda: Twilight Princess save. Place your SD Card into the Wii's card slot and copy the file Twilight Hack to your Wii.

That’s it! Now, we need to load some homebrew and run it, so check out part 2!

References:

WiiBrew Twilight Hack Page

Also, thanks to cowsinspace for letting me know about this!

Movie Review: Honogurai Mizu no Soko Kara (仄暗い水の底から)

2008-01-20T11:00:00.000-06:00

Dark Water (known as Honogurai Mizu no Soko Kara in Japan,) is a movie involving a woman, Yoshimi Matsubara (played by Hitomi Kuroki,) who is going through a rough divorce with her soon-to-be ex husband, Kunio Hamada (played by Fumiyo Kohinata.) Through this divorce is a nasty custody battle for their six-year old daughter, Ikuko (played by Rio Kanno.) In order for Yoshimi to keep custody of Ikuko, she must find a place to live and a steady job.

Yoshimi comes across an apartment that has a large living space and a low price, so she and Ikuko decide to move in. After the move, Yoshimi discovers an odd leak in the ceiling and reports it to apartment manager. During this time, she is also hired on to work as an editor for a publishing company.

Everything seems to be going great until odd things start happening around the apartment building, especially the room located directly above Yoshimi's. From here is where the story really takes off. The viewer finds out about a missing girl who once lived there and about Yoshimi's past as an editor for a horror author. As the movie progresses, so does the strange leak in Yoshimi's apartment.

Overall, I thought the movie was well done. I've heard mixed reviews on the more recent (2005,) version of this movie made here in The States, though this is not too surprising. I can see how this one would be a little hard to translate into a more Western horror movie. For those of you interested, you can probably find the original Japanese version at most large movie retailers, or online at places like Amazon. If you would like to sit back and watch this movie online, as I did, you can view the entire movie at crunchyroll.com (check the link below.)

Links:

Watch this movie at Crunchyroll
Buy this movie on Amazon

My Take on One Missed Call (American Release)

2008-01-06T08:42:00.001-06:00

Well, after watching trailers for the up and coming One Missed Call, I'm a bit disappointed. I've seen the three Japanese movies and loved them (well, at least the first two.) The American version does not look to have the same feel as the Japanese film. This can also be said of previous Japanese to American movies such as Ju-on (known as The Grudge here in the States.) I'll hold my ultimate comments until I can sit down and watch the new version. Until then, I'm holding on my stance that it will not touch the Japanese movies.

American Trailer

Japanese Trailer

Doubutsu no Mori: The Movie Review (どうぶつの森)

2008-01-06T08:23:00.000-06:00

I finally sat down and watched the entire Doubutsu no Mori movie last night. Overall, the movie was fairly accurate to the game (known as Animal Crossing outside of Japan.)

The movie follows the adventures of Ai, a young girl who has moved out on her own to a town named Animal Village. Ai meets many new friends and and sets off to try her best to fit in. As the movie progresses, she finds messages in bottles speaking of a winter festival miracle. Each bottle gives her a task leading up to the Winter Festival. Mixed with adventures with her friends and a bit of surprise at the end, the film delivers a cute story rather well.

The animation is above par to standard video game based anime. The backgrounds have a warm water colored feel and the characters are vibrant and well drawn. The music is composed of slight remixes of the music in Animal Crossing: Wild World and fits very well to the movie.

If you have the time, there is a stream of this film with fansubs over at Crunchyroll.

Links:

Doubutsu no Mori (Japanese Site)
Animal Crossing Movie on Wikipedia
Crunchyroll Link to the movie

Interactive Wall

2008-01-06T08:14:00.000-06:00

I saw a clip of one of these being used on a news program this morning and was blown away by just how well it was working! Here's a different clip of the same product.

Crunchyroll.com

2007-12-21T22:32:00.000-06:00

I can't remember if I posted this page before or not, but if you love Asian cinema, television, anime, and music, then you need to check it out!

No More Heroes

2007-12-21T18:26:00.000-06:00

Man, I want this game bad...

TRAILER

GMV (Game Music Video)

How to Cook a Turkey With a Light Bulb and DVD-Rs

2007-11-25T20:17:00.000-06:00

HouseholdHacker Update: How to Build a Cell Phone Interceptor

2007-11-25T20:15:00.001-06:00

Turkey Legs by Scott K. McDonald

2007-11-20T20:17:00.000-06:00

Ali Spagnola

2007-11-20T00:18:00.000-06:00

Ali Spagnola is an artist offering free paintings. Seeing as how I like the paintings, I would like to see more people support her art. Anyways, the link is below a sample picture.

The Link

How to Power a TV using a AAA Battery

2007-11-17T20:04:00.001-06:00

Here's another fun one :P

How to Charge an iPod using Electrolytes and an Onion

2007-11-17T19:59:00.000-06:00

Wow. I'm curious what other USB powered devices could be charged this way...

pictures for sad children

2007-11-12T23:34:00.000-06:00

This is a great webcomic! Here's a sample (and a link.)

And a Pretz Commercial too...

2007-11-08T17:39:00.001-06:00

Favorite Pocky Commercial so far...

2007-11-08T17:37:00.000-06:00

Hiryuu Hon'yaku

2007-10-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I've got a my translation site up. Nothing on it, but it's up nonetheless.

Linkage

Foo Fighters: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

2007-09-16T23:06:00.000-05:00

Man, what a great CD! It debuts on Sept. 25th! I highly recommend it! I've been listening to it all day ^_^

New Hot Hot Heat

2007-09-09T11:22:00.000-05:00

I got the new Hot Hot Heat CD Happiness LTD. a few days early. I have to say, that I'm not disappointed! The music sounds like a cross between their Make Up the Break Down and Elevator. Bellow is the front CD art and track listing. To be noted, 5 Times Out of 100, was released on the previous album Knock Knock Knock.

"Happiness Ltd." - 4:35
"Let Me In" - 4:15
"5 Times Out of 100" - 3:01
"Harmonicas & Tambourines" - 3:05
"Outta Heart" - 4:12
"My Best Fiend" - 2:53
"Conversation" - 2:38
"Give Up?" - 3:34
"Good Day to Die" - 3:18
"So So Cold" - 4:07
"Waiting for Nothing" - 4:30

I love stupid scam e-mails

2007-08-21T19:42:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite scam e-mail so far! Besides the major grammatical errors, the e-mail itself makes little sense. I'll let you judge.

"How are your?‎
From: Mrs judith (grahambutler2007@yahoo.com)
You may not know this sender. Mark as safe Mark as unsafe
Sent: Tue 8/21/07 7:36 PM
Reply-to: mrsjudith001williams@yahoo.com
To:
Dear Friend ,
My name is Mrs Judith Williams am 79yrs old of age, i stay at No 6618 Flower mound Dr, Sugar land TX 78479 , USA.
I am a good merchant, I have several industrial companies and good share in various banks in the world .I spend all my life on investment and cop orate business. All the way i lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal accident that occur in November 5th 2003. I am a very greedy woman with all cost i don't know much and care about people, since when I have an experience of my it difficult to sleep and give rest .
Later in the year 2004 February i was sent a letter of medical check up, as my personal Doctor testify that i have a lung cancer, which can easily take off my life soon. I found it uneasy to survive myself, because a lot of investment cannot be run and manage by me again. I quickly call up a pastor / prophet to give me positive thinking on this solution, as my adviser.
He ministered to me to share my properties ,wealth, to motherless baby/orphanage homes/people that need money for survivor both student that need money/ business men for their investment and for future rising. So i am writing this letter to people who really need help from me both student in college, to contact me urgently.
So that i can make available preparation on that especially women of the day, who are divorced by their husband, why they cannot survive the mist of feeding theirs elf. Please contact me and stop weeping . Probably let me now what you really need the money for, and if you can still help me to distribute money to nearest orphanages homes near your town. Now am so much with God, am now born again.
May you be blessed, as you reach me, I will give more information to you as i await your response immediately.
Best Regards ,
Mrs Judith Williams "

Urban Ninja

2007-08-17T20:42:00.001-05:00

This has been around for a while, but I saw it for the first time the other night on a show called i caught. Anyways, it's pretty amazing stuff!

Japanese Game Show

2007-08-17T20:23:00.000-05:00

Here's a clip from a game show in Japan where the people have to make their bodies into various shapes to move on to the next round. Some of these look near impossible!

Ranma 1/2: Battle Renaissance Translation

2007-07-11T18:25:00.000-05:00

I'm currently translating Ranma 1/2: Battle Renaissance for the Playstation from Japanese to English. The game itself is really not all that great, but I'm a huge Ranma 1/2 fan. Below are two video clips. The first one is the original intro in Japanese. The second video is the Japanese intro with English subtitles. I still need to format the subs to fit the window better, but at least I've got them in place now. I've got the video converted back into the Playstation format, but I need to test placing them back into the RANMA.STS file located on the disc. I've gotten a little advice from Cless from Phantasian Productions about compiling them into one .STS file.

Before:

After:

Hiroshi Ishiguro's Geminoid

2007-07-08T11:10:00.000-05:00

Wow. The videos speak for themselves! Below the videos are a couple of links for more information.

And here's another Japanese android...

Damninteresting Link
Engadget Link

Heh heh heh...

2007-06-25T21:12:00.000-05:00

I told my coworker that I would not put the full video of him falling down from our security cameras at work on youtube. I neve said anything about the falling down as an animated GIF though!

Sorry, man!

Self-Replicating Repairing Robots (YouTube)

2007-06-23T14:17:00.000-05:00

A working Mech in Japan

2007-06-23T14:15:00.000-05:00

Neat!

My First Keyboard Wallet

2007-06-09T10:23:00.000-05:00

I made my first keyboard wallet today. It came out pretty good, in my opinion! Here's a few pics:
Here is a link to the instructions for making your own!

The Used - Lies for Liars

2007-05-18T19:02:00.001-05:00

No post. Just three pictures. ^_^ Comes out 5/22/07 and every song is great!

Movie Review: Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル)

2007-05-17T21:27:00.001-05:00

Battle Royale was released in Japan on December 16, 2000. The movie is based off of a novel by Koushun Takami.

The movie opens with this prologue:

"At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted the school. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act AKA: The BR Act. .."

*WARNING: Small Spoiler Alert!*

The movie starts out with one student stabbing a teacher and running away. The knife he drops is picked up and hidden by another student. After this, the class gets together and leaves for what they think is a class field trip. Along the way, they are gassed and taken to a remote island. When the students wake up, they find themselves in a dilapidated school room with strange collars on their necks. A teacher and several armed men come in to show them a video tape and explain the situation. They are told that they will be given supplies and weapons and are to kill each of their classmates. The last student alive will be set free. The catch to this is that they have three days to do this or a small detonation device will explode in their collars.

Where I believe the movie shines is the way it portrays the students and how quickly they are forced to adapt. Friendships are shattered and a primal instinct arises in many of the students. Several of the students kill out of revenge for being mistreated in school, while others try to find a peaceful resolution.

This film has been shadowed with controversy since its release in Japan. The Japanese parliament has been said to have labeled the movie “crude and tasteless.” Also, rumors of the movie being banned in the Untied States have sprung up on several occasions. As far as the banned rumors go, a quick search on Google or Wikipedia will explain that it is not banned in the U.S., only it is not being picked up by any domestic distributors.

For more information, check out the wiki for this movie on Wikipedia.

The Used - The Bird and the Worm Video

2007-05-10T06:56:00.000-05:00

Movie Review: Uzumaki (うずまき)

2007-05-09T19:38:00.000-05:00

Uzumaki (Spiral or Vortex,) is a Japanese horror movie based on a short running manga series. Since I have never read any of the manga, I was in for quite a surprise. The movie starts out in the small Japanese town of Kuruzou with the heroine, Gosima Kirie, running to meet her boyfriend Saito Shuichi. From that scene on, you are pummeled with spiraling camera angles and bizarre images of vortexes. Even the opening running scene takes you around corner after corner. Without giving too much away, the movie is based on this town coming under a curse involving vortexes. Several people start to act abnormally, such as Shuichi’s father filming snail shells, a school student named Yamakuchi picks up the hobby of scaring people, another student only shows up for class because he is walking slower and covered in slime, and a strange girl named Sekino undergoes an interesting hairstyle… All of these things combined with bizarre imagery of spirals in not so everyday places help this movie to stand out from other Japanese horrors.

If you are a fan of Japanese movies and don’t mind a few disturbing scenes, then you will probably enjoy Uzumaki quite a bit. I will say, however, that after reading several reviews of the movie and manga, the movie has a different ending than the manga and is not quite as dark or as creepy.

I plan on picking up the manga and seeing how it compares. Speaking of which, you can find them here for download. I take no responsibility for the downloading and viewing of these files. I’m pretty sure these are fan translations, but I may be wrong.

Sources and Pictures:

Official Uzumaki Theatrical Site
IMDB
Wikipedia
Mandi Apple’s Review
Wikipedia – Manga Information

Japanese Urban Legend: Kuchi-sake Onna (口裂け女)

2007-05-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, an urban legend was circulated about the Kuchi-sake Onna (“Split Faced Woman”.)

The legend is said to have originated with a young woman in feudal Japan. She was extremely beautiful and very vain. She was said to be the wife of a very jealous samurai. One day, the samurai felt as thought his beautiful wife had cheated on him. When he found his wife, he took out a knife and slit her mouth open from ear to ear asking her, “Who will think you’re beautiful now?” One other origin tells of a beautiful woman having a horrific plastic surgery accident.

It was spread around that she roams the streets of Japan (especially around night and foggy evenings,) wearing a surgical mask*. When she comes upon someone alone (typically children and young adults,) she asks them, “Kirei da to omou?” (“Do you think I’m beautiful?”) If the victim answers yes, she tears the mask away revealing her mutilated mouth. Usually, the victim runs away with the Kuchi-sake Onna chasing after him/her. Once the victim makes it home, the Kuchi-sake Onna is said to catch him/her and either cut their mouths the way hers is, or to kill them and leave them mutilated on his/her door step.

Most versions of the legend say that if you answer her by saying she looks ordinary, and then she will leave you alone and look for another victim. It is also said that if you throw out some of Kuchi-Sake Onna’s favorite candy, she will stop chasing you and go after the candy.

After some research, it looks as if in the summer of 1979, the rumors of Kuchi-sake Onna roaming the streets of Japan became wide spread and caused panic with many Japanese children and young adult. Children would not go out alone and would sometimes not attend school out of fear of the Kuchi-sake Onna.

A similar rumor spread throughout Korea in 2004. It is believed that the rumor started with the 1996 Japanese movie Kuchisake-onna and the internet.

*NOTE: It is typical to see Japanese men and women wearing surgical masks when they are feeling sick. This is to help keep from spreading the germs. They are also worn when pollen is in the air. You can see reference to this in Japanese pop culture through manga and anime.

Online Sources:

Wikipedia

Mari – diary entry

Japanese Urban Legend: Hanako-san (花子さん)

2007-05-07T17:41:00.000-05:00

The Hanako-san legend was told me by a friend from Japan. I've been told that there are many forms of this legend, but this is the one she was always told.

Three young school girls are staying after class to work on a group project. One of the girls feels the urge to pee, so she asks her two friends if they will go with her. On their way to the restroom, one of the girls challenges them to play "Hanako-san." The two girls are nervous about this, but they want to be brave, so they go along. When they reach the restroom, they find that the lights are off. The first girl reaches in and turns the lights on. There are four stalls on one side, and sinks with mirrors above them. The three girls walk up to third stall and knock on the stall door three times. After the third time, they chant together, "Hanako-san, Hanako-san. Let's play a game." They stand together and wait. Nothing. The girls look at each other and start to giggle at each other.

Once the girls calm down, they all realize that they need to go to the restroom. The girl who challenges the other two to Hanako-san, goes into the first stall. Neither girl wants to go in the third stall, so they play jankenpon (Rock, Paper, Scissors) to see who gets the second stall.* The girl who first had to use the restroom lost, so she got the fourth stall. By the time the two girls got in their stalls, the first girl had already finished and was waiting outside the bathroom.

The girl in stall four finishes and reaches for the toilet paper, only there is no toilet paper in this stall! "Hey! Can you give me some toilet paper?" she asks the girl in the second stall. She hears the girl in stall two reply ", hold on." No sooner did she hear the reply when a roll of toilet paper rolls under the door from stall three. The girl realizes that there isn't anyone in stall three. She runs out the door, forgetting all about needing the toilet paper and pushes open the third stall's door. Inside is a young girl with wild black hair and a very pale face. Her lips are a deep crimson. The girl is frozen with fear. As Hanako-san starts to stand up, the girl outside yells for her to hurry up. She finds her strength and runs out of the bathroom. Once there, she realizes that both the other girls are already out. They tell her that they never heard her ask for the toilet paper. Once the other girls see her face, they realize that she is not teasing them. All of them run back to the classroom.

*Note: The reason neither girl wanted to go into the fourth stall is because the number four in Japan is considered bad luck. The pronunciation of four is shi. Shi also means death in Japanese.

Here is a link to a VERY similar story that I found after hearing this from my friend. It is almost exactly the way she told it, only they give a reason behind the legend.

*EDIT* I was surfing around and it looks like the other widely spread version of Hanako-san is to knock on the stall three times saying "Hanako-san?" each time. After the third time, you will hear a soft "hai," but no one will be in the stall! Here's the link to this version. Also, there seem to be other versions about Hanako-san opening and closing the lids on toilets.

'Father of the PlayStation' leaving Sony as pricey PS3 lags Wii, Xbox

2007-04-27T23:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a good ole' copy & paste for you.

Business

Friday April 27, 2007

'Father of the PlayStation' leaving Sony as pricey PS3 lags Wii, Xbox

by Los Angeles Times

Print Story

Email Story

The engineer known as the "Father of the PlayStation'' said he would end his three-decade career at Sony Corp. in June in the wake of faltering sales of the latest version of what was once the world's best-selling video game system.

Sony said Thursday that Ken Kutaragi was leaving voluntarily to make way for a new generation of management at the Tokyo-based consumer electronics giant. His departure comes at a time when the PlayStation 3, which Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer has described as a cornerstone for the company's growth, has been outflanked by rival game consoles by Nintendo Co. Ltd. and Microsoft Corp.

"He was the lifeline for Sony for a period of time, as Sony took on the major task of restructuring electronics,'' said John G. Taylor of Arcadia Investment Corp., an institutional research boutique in Portland, Ore. "But the magic stopped there.''

In December, Kutaragi was removed from day-to-day oversight of the games division, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., and took the role of chairman and chief executive. His protege, Kazuo Hirai, the former head of the U.S. game operations, became president of the division. Hirai will be promoted to chief executive on June 19.

"I actually think it's really sad,'' said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "He is a visionary, a once-in-a-lifetime person. He's the Sony analogy to Steve Jobs.''

Kutaragi is one of the most revered figures in electronic entertainment. An engineer by training, Kutaragi is known to be passionate, almost child-like, in his enthusiasm. In the early 1990s, when game consoles were dismissed as toys and Nintendo dominated the market, Kutaragi built a box that attracted an adult consumer. The risky gambit helped transform the toy business into a mass market that today brings in roughly $30 billion worldwide.

"Sony turned the tables completely on Nintendo,'' said Taylor. "I think it was part of Kutaragi's legacy that the core of the business, the biggest and most dynamic part of the business, shifted to those companies that were addressing males between 18 to 35.''

The original PlayStation, introduced in December 1994, quickly surpassed Nintendo's best-selling game console, selling 100 million units worldwide. Sony cemented its dominance with the 2000 introduction of the PlayStation 2, which commanded a 70 percent market share, with global sales of 110 million boxes.

PlayStation emerged as a reliable cash cow for Sony, contributing at least 60 percent of the company's revenue in fiscal 2002, 2003 and 2004, and 58 percent of sales in 2005. Its market clout emboldened Sony to engineer a new system that extended beyond video games.

The PlayStation 3 contains a high-definition disc player, which was designed to establish Sony's Blu-ray format as the standard for the next generation of DVDs. The goal was to spark sales of the HD movie discs sold by Sony's movie studio and the Bravia televisions made by its consumer electronics group.

But that decision inflated the cost of the PlayStation 3. At $599, it is the priciest system around. Component shortages caused Sony to postpone the launch date, halve shipments to the United States and Japan and postpone the European launch. The PlayStation 3 had an anemic debut last fall.

In the first five months, Sony sold 1.2 million PlayStation 3 units in the U.S. That's 43 percent of the sales of PS2 over a similar period. By comparison, Nintendo sold nearly twice as many of its Wii game consoles, at a price of $250, in the U.S. -- 2.1 million -- and 5.84 million worldwide.

Most recent sales figures show Microsoft's rival Xbox 360, costing up to $400, is consistently outselling PlayStation 3.

New DoCoMo Cell Phones

2007-04-24T20:33:00.000-05:00

Yay! The new DoCoMo 940i series phones are listed on their site! These Japanese cell phones have everything from motion sensing (similar to Wii Remotes,) to touch pads (like on your laptop.)

DoCoMo FOMA 904i Gallery

A little bathroom humour...

2007-04-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

I was in one of our (our as in work, not mine!) stores a couple of weeks ago and snapped a pic of their toilet in the men's room. I'm guessing that #1 is not ok to do in the #2 spot ^_^ It does concern me that someone actually took the time to draw that, though...

My Birthday Cake

2007-04-20T19:20:00.000-05:00

Last Friday (April 6th,) I turned twenty and six. My mom and sister made the following cake.

Not for the faint of heart...

2007-04-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

Below is a movie off of the myspace page for Ginsu Wives. Ginsu Wives used to be EMR, btw. Anyways, this movie is weird and not for the kiddies. You've been warned!

Upcoming Movies

2007-04-11T23:12:00.000-05:00

I found a list of all the movies coming out in 2007 and some for 2008. Take a look!

Film-Releases.com

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

Galbadia Hotel - A great site for video game OST's and Manga!

2007-04-08T09:58:00.000-05:00

Check out this site! It's full of anime and video game OST's (Original Sound Tracks,) and full series of manga (in JPEG format.)

Holy crap!

2007-04-03T23:12:00.000-05:00

Someone has way too much time on there hands! Here's some Zelda Animal Crossing: WW

How to poop - Japanese potty training video

2007-04-01T09:22:00.000-05:00

Wow. It's so cute, yet so diturbing...

Hope is Emo

2007-03-30T18:39:00.000-06:00

Wow. I've not laughed this hard in quite a while. Anyways, check out hopeisemo.com and watch a few episodes. They are pretty funny.

That's Underground

2007-03-30T18:36:00.000-06:00

I had someone send me a link to this and thought it was funny enough to share.

Thats Pretty Underground - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

My thoughts on Wii Play.

2007-02-13T21:05:00.000-06:00

Well, after a little over twenty phone calls, and a trip across town, I have acquired a copy of Wii Play. The main selling point of this product is the extra Wii remote, since they are a bit hard to come by in most areas. The actual game, however, is not worth near as much on its own. Wii Play is a collection of nine games that were played at E3 along with Wii Sports. The games range from a Duck Hunt like shooting gallery to jumping cows over fences. Seven of the nine games are great playing with a friend, but only a couple hold up in the single player mode. The shooting gallery, laser hockey, table tennis, and billiards are great two player games, and even amusing single player games. The Mii games, however, lack much replay value. Overall, it's worth the $50 if you can find it in your area for the remote alone. This is also a great buy for those who are not familiar with the Wii remote and need to cover the basics.

Back in 2005, a "dead" victim shows up at a serial killers trial.

2007-02-13T20:55:00.000-06:00

Here's something you don't read everyday:

(Page 1 of 6)

June 24, 2006

Natasha Ryan was presumed dead (CBS)

Quote

“I don’t think you’d really want to meet him in a dark alley, to be honest. First thing he said to me was, ‘I’m no child molester.’”

Detective Darren Lees

(CBS) This story originally aired on Sept. 24, 2005.

It’s never happened before on 48 Hours Mystery, and maybe not ever in history. One of a serial killer’s presumed victims showed up at her alleged killer's trial. Correspondent Bill Lagattuta reports from Rockhampton, Australia.

Imagine the nightmare. Five women and girls were missing. Keyra Steinhardt, age 9; Natasha Ryan, 14; Sylvia Benedetti, 19, Beverly Leggo, 37, and Julie Turner, 39, vanished one after another from this picturesque small city in Queensland.

Around town, many people stopped going out. They wouldn’t drive at night, not even to a movie theater. Rockhampton was in a state of fear.

Early on, the police got a lucky break and brought in a suspect who had a long and violent history. “He had the hallmarks of a serial killer,” says Dave Hickey, who led the homicide task force on the case. “Lenny Fraser is a psychopath,” declares Prosecutor Paul Rutledge. “He is a very dangerous man.”

Nonetheless, it was a difficult case for the police, who had found little evidence and had not even found all of the bodies. To get a conviction, they needed a confession.

So, to catch a criminal, they turned to a criminal. Allan Quinn brags that he is Australia’s greatest con man. And he was about to embark on the biggest con of his career.

For Quinn, it was “a chance for me to turn my life around to compensate for the terrible life I led.” He was determined to find out what had happened to the missing people of Rockhampton.

But before the case was all over, a murder victim would rise from the grave and walk right into court.

For the rest of the story, check out the CBS News link here.

Love is in the air... at Chick-fil-a???

2007-02-13T20:36:00.000-06:00

It looks like you can make reservations for you and your significant other at chick-fil-a for Valentine's Day. I'm not quite sure how chick-fil-a is considered fine dining, but who am I to judge? Maybe your loved one just happens to savor the exquisite taste of fried chicken and waffle fries...

P.S. This may just be our local Chick-fil-a. If so, let me know!

Bill Gates Admits that Nintendo, NOT Sony, is the XBox's Biggest Compition

2007-01-10T18:52:00.000-06:00

Wow. Here's a short article from teamXBOX :

In an interview with TV Tokyo, Bill Gates said that, in the video game industry, Microsoft’s biggest competition is not Sony but Nintendo.

"The strength of Nintendo on the portable space has been very impressive and surprised a lot of people; and the strength of the Wii; and we see Nintendo as the toughest competition," said Gates.

Gates’ statements are not a surprise considering the tremendous sales both the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii have enjoyed since they went on sale.

Wii Outsells Playstation 3 in Japan

2007-01-10T18:42:00.000-06:00

Here's a nice article from the New York Times:

Published: January 10, 2007

TOKYO, Jan. 10 — Japan is offering some of the first glimpses into the hotly contested market for new video game consoles, and the view so far doesn’t look good for struggling Sony and its much-touted PlayStation 3.

Enterbrain, a Tokyo-based video game magazine publisher, released sales estimates in Japan today that showed Sony fell far short of its goal of selling one million PlayStation 3 consoles here last year. Sony sold 534,336 units between their debut in Japan on Nov. 11 and Jan. 7, Enterbrain said.

By contrast, Enterbrain reported that rival Nintendo sold 1.14 million units of its less expensive new game console, Wii, by the same date, despite going on sale three weeks after PlayStation. Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which has had limited success breaking into the Japanese market, has sold 311,053 units since arriving in December 2005, Enterbrain said.

Analysts said these figures offer some of the first hard data on how PlayStation 3, which debuted here a week before the United States, was faring in a major marketplace. Analysts said the figures also added a note of caution to Sony’s announcement over the weekend that it was on track to ship six million PlayStation 3s worldwide this year.

Slow sales could spell trouble for Sony, which badly needs PlayStation 3 to be a hit to overcome years of lackluster profits and polish its brand image. Sony’s Welsh-born chief executive, Sir Howard Stringer, has repeatedly said the company’s future depends on turning out “champion products,” and analysts say PlayStation 3 is the only potential mega-hit now visible in the company’s pipelines.

Analysts said the Japanese sales figures could offer an advanced look at how PlayStation 3 and Wii could fare in the United States, though they cautioned there were differences between the countries. They said consumers in the United States, for instance, may be more willing to embrace PlayStation 3 because its sharper graphics could be better suited to the larger television screens in America’s more spacious homes.

Analysts also said they had expected a slow start by PlayStation 3 in all major global markets, as production delays limited the number of machines available. But they and retailers said they have been surprised by just how tepid Japanese demand has been so far. They said the main reason consumers were shunning PlayStation 3 was its high price, twice as expensive as Wii.

“We are getting our first real peek into the marketplace,” said Masayuki Otani, a video games industry analyst at Maruwa Securities in Tokyo, “and it’s obvious already that Wii is bolting ahead.”

Mr. Otani also cautioned that it was too early to write off PlayStation 3, saying that Sony still had ample opportunity to catch up as more games and other software became available. He said there was also a concern that Wii’s popularity may prove a flash in the pan, though it will likely take Sony at least two or three years to catch Wii’s sales figures.

The Japanese sales estimates came just days after Sony announced that it had met its goal of shipping one million PlayStation 3s to the United States by the end of last year. That announcement was made on the opening day of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Sony is showcasing PlayStation 3.

However, analysts point out that the American figure only reflects shipments to retailers, not actual purchases by consumers. They also noted that Sony did not mention whether it had met its goal of shipping two million units combined in America and Japan by year-end. Production problems forced Sony to delay the rollout in Europe until March.

In a statement, Sony said it had put PlayStation 3s onto weekly flights to the United States to ensure there were enough machines for the Christmas shopping season. Analysts said Sony was apparently focused on winning American consumers, even to the point of diverting machines there from Japan.

Retailers across Japan, reached by phone, indicated that those diverted machines were not being missed. They said that while demand for Wii was booming, PlayStation 3s were sitting on store shelves. Most blamed price; the cheapest model of the new PlayStation 3 sells here for 49,980 yen, or $425, versus Wii’s price of 25,000 yen, or $210. In the United States, the same machines cost $499 and $250 respectively.

At a Yodobashi Camera store in the northern city of Sendai, deputy manager Satoshi Hino said Wii machines were selling out as fast as they arrived. He said shoppers had bought up last week’s shipments of 3,000 Wii consoles within an hour, but the store had yet to sell many of the 3,000 PlayStation 3s received at the same time.

“Shoppers still line up for Wii, but not for PlayStation 3 anymore,” Mr. Hino said, referring to the long lines that initially greeted PlayStation 3’s November rollout.

Sony has said PlayStation 3’s high prices are justified by top end features, including the high-speed Cell processing chip, co-developed with IBM and Toshiba, and the next-generation Blu-ray DVD disk drive. Analysts said that PlayStation 3’s powerful processing and graphics made it a machine that would remain competitive for years.

“The new PlayStation could take a while to catch on with consumers,” said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Enterbrain. “But this is a machine with enormous potential.”

Man, this stuff makes me happy ^_^ I would also like to add that I was in Best Buy today and they still had around ten PS3's, but not a single Wii. I watched as a young couple asked for a Wii and the salesman said, "Ma'am, they are hard to find, but we do have several Playstation 3s!" The couple said they did not want one and that they were too expensive and did not look at much fun as the Wii. ^_^

Konami, Castlevania, and the Wii

2007-01-07T10:46:00.000-06:00

Looks like there is a little bit of hope that we may see a Castlevania game for the Wii (other than VC games like Super Castlevania IV.) Below is a short article from IGN.

Castlevania On Wii?

Iga talks about the Belmont brood and Nintendo's not-next-gen next-gen system.

by IGN Staff

September 6, 2006 - Back at E3 we spoke to Castlevania's main man, Koji Igarashi to talk about Portrait of Ruin, the anticipated sequel to Dawn of Sorrow, on the Nintendo DS.

At that time Iga was understandably skeptical about how comfortable it would be to use a Wii-mote to whip for hours. Specifically, he said "I'm very interested in the Wii hardware, and I'm attending a Nintendo presentation in Japan, as well as a Nintendo press conference this week. I realize that the Wii market is casual gamers, that are looking forward to a short game experience and I hardly doubt that with the Castlevania style, they'll all sit down and want to play for multiple hours or even a day. Also, I just really can't think of any good ideas. My thought is that a Castlevania game doesn't fit very well with it unfortunately. But maybe when I go back to Japan I might come up with some brilliant idea, and I'll try to think of the possibilities."

Recently, Nintendo's European site printed an interview with Iga from the German Games Convention. Now, Iga has some news for those interested in seeing Castlevania come to the Wii. When asked if he'd given further thought to the idea Iga replied, "We still can't think about anything other than this DS version because we are so busy, but of course we would like to think of something interesting and pleasant for Wii. I have some ideas for Castlevania for Wii."

That's a juicy tease for fans of the series.

This is a bit different from the following Kotaku article pulled from Magic Box.

According to Magic Box:

Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi said that Castlevania does not fit with Wii, because the Wii market is for people who want to have new experience, these type of people do not have time to play lengthy games like Castlevania; also he does not have a good idea to make use of the Wii controller in the game.

Dude, you aren't trying very hard. The Wii remote is a natural whip handle. Swinging overhead lashes out Belmont's mean razor blade whipe. Flicking the Wii remote sideways tosses a projectile weapon. And you could even pound stakes through vampires' hearts with a satisfying forward thrust. And I'm sure our imaginative readers could fill the comments section with endless other ideas.

Also, no one wants to play long games on the Wii? Hello? Aren't Metroid and Zelda highly anticipated on the Wii? - Florian Eckhardt

So who knows just what Konami has in store for the Wii. Hopefully it will include a great Castlevania title.

Wii's doing fine

2006-12-02T13:30:00.000-06:00

According to several news articles, it looks as if Nintendo's doing just fine in the console wars. I've been a bit worried about the big N. They've had the hand held market cornered, but with the decision not to work up the hardware on the Wii has had me a bit nervous. And then I see articles like this one. It's an article from the Washington Post. According to stocks, Nintendo is up 91% and Sony is actually down 4%. Anyways, I'll be playing my Wii while the Sony boys can send their two ton, overheating behemoth back to the shop.

Ahhh.... Wii.....

2006-11-19T16:18:00.000-06:00

I'm pulling myself away from my new Wii long enough to post and let everyone out there know that this is by far the greatest video game system I have ever played! The package itself comes with a fun little beginners game known as Wii Sports and I snagged a copy of Red Steel for a little FPS fun. The only compaints that I've had is that I'm not very good with the swords in Red Steel and it took me all day to finally get my Wii to connect to the internet! The browser is not yet out, and only half the Virtual Console games that were announced have appeared at the Wii Shop Channel. Other than that, this is a great system! Well, I can here the Wii calling to me... I'll try to post again later, or maybe I'll let the moose do it. He's about done slobbering on my soul....

Happy Halloween!!!

2006-10-31T07:13:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween! I know it's cheesy, but for all of you that have no idea where this holiday originated, check out the following wikipedia link.

Also, here's a little message Dirge put on his website this morning...

I pre-ordered my Wii this morning with Gamestop!

2006-10-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

WOOHOO!!!!! I was number 27 at my local gamestop to pre-order my wii! They are getting 35, four for employees and thirty-one for customers. So I'll be going to the midnight release party and picking up my new wii!

TAPS Para-Radio

2006-10-11T11:20:00.000-05:00

Since today is the debut of Season 3 of The Ghost Hunters, I thought a link to Grant and Jason's Podcast would be a great way to make it through the day until the show airs tonight on SciFi (8/7c and again at 11/10c.)

TAPS Para-Radio

Art Teacher Terminated for Teaching Art

2006-10-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

This is the stupidest reason in the world to fire an art teacher.

"An award-winning teacher in Dallas, Texas, has been made redundant after parents complained about a visit to a local art museum.

NBC reports, “the art teacher came under fire last April when she took 89 fifth-graders on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. Parents raised concerns over the field trip after their children reported seeing a nude sculpture at the art museum.”

Notice the article is careful to not to say she was fired as a direct result of the incident.

See also, Art Teacher Suspended for Recommending Figure Drawing Classes, which stirred up a bit of a comment-storm amongst the Drawn-erati."

In my opinion, this is stupid. Part of understanding art is understanding the human body and its form. Every art museum I've been in has paintings and sculptures of the human body. What did the parents of the 89 fifth-graders expect when they signed the permission slips approving of the field trip? It's not like they were going to the Mickey Mouse Art Museum of Pansy Drawings of Animated Animals and if they were, I'm sure they were not looking at dirty sculptures of Daisy Duck... Besides, who ever heard of Disney being behind nude art? Anyways, the whole thing is ridiculous.

Article copied from Drawn!

Konami Links!!!

2006-10-06T17:12:00.000-05:00

Below are a few links from Konami! Click'em! Thanks!

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Trailer

Lunar Knights Trailer

A couple of interesing sites

2006-09-24T20:43:00.000-05:00

I've been visiting a couple of sites for quite some time now, and I've decided to share them with what few people actually check this blog out ^_^

Bad Psychics
Damn Interesting

1846 Doppelganger of Emilie Sagee

2006-09-24T18:28:00.000-05:00

I was perusing wikipedia this afternoon when I came across an article on Doppelgangers. A doppleganger is considered to be either a projected double of one's self, or a shape shifter of one kind or another. Doppelganger is a German term which literally means "double walker." Anyways, the article mentions an Emilie Sagee. Emilie was a french school teacher at an all girls school. It was noted on various occasions that the students, servants, and faculty saw her "double" on random occasions. Below are several articles on Doppelgangers and Emilie Sagee

Wikipedia - Doppelganger
Emilie Sagee on mysteries
Doppelganger! on paranormal.about.com

ATI Catalyst 6.9 is out.

2006-09-24T16:57:00.000-05:00

Looks like ATI has updated their drivers again. You can get them here.

Pointless update

2006-09-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

Man. It's been almost a month since my last post. Things have been pretty crazy around here. Other than the usual, I've been messing around with Windows Vista Beta 2. I'm going to load RC1 tomorrow afternoon. I'm hopeing to spend a little more time on the EMR site and spruce it up this weekend, but I'm not sure that I'll have the time. Anyways, here are some links to tide you over until my next update.

Tenchu for the DS
Bizzare News
The Worst Top Ten Ever

Nintendo leads in July sales.

2006-08-12T22:08:00.000-05:00

The July NPD is out and it looks like Nintendo out sold many of the competitors. The Nintendo DS was the best saleing system last month.

Nintendo DS: 377,000
PS2: 241,000
360: 206,000
GBA: 163,000
PSP: 161,000
GCN: 44,000
Xbox: 12,000

Here's a link to the story on 1up.com

Emergency Mustache Response Page Update / I have a YouTube account now ^_^

2006-08-12T19:14:00.000-05:00

Another update to the EMR site. The chat has been updated (will be updated again 8/15/06.) Also, the swag page loads (only a non-emr video, though.)

Also, I opened up my YouTube account. I'll update more on that later :P

Flock Web Browser

2006-08-08T18:46:00.000-05:00

Mozilla has released a second web browser entitled Flock. The difference in Flock and Mozilla's past web browser, Firefox, is that Flock is designed to work seamlessly with blog sites such as this one.

Here is the official announcement.

ATI Catalyst Drivers 6.7

2006-07-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

ATI has updated their Catalyst driver set to 6.7.

Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.7

The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:

Oblivion: Enabling CrossFire™ and setting the display resolution to 1600x1200 no longer results in the game failing to respond when task switching under the Windows XP operating system. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22790

Quake4: Texture corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22782

Installing an ATI Radeon® X1900 CrossFire™ master edition graphics card and and ATI Radeon® X1900 series secondary product on a system using a Dell 2405FPW and enabling CrossFire™ no longer results in the display device losing a signal or the 3D application or game exiting back to the desktop. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22664

Installing an ATI Radeon® X1x00 series of product on certain nVidia Nforce 4 platforms no longer results in the operating system failing to respond or the operating system exhibiting general instability when running 3D applications. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22378

Checking the Use centered timings in the notebook panel properties page no longer results in the apply button found in the Catalyst® Control Center becoming active, even though no options for change have been selected. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22774

Using the hot-key function to change an LCD display panel setting no longer results in the LCD Panel Properties found in the Catalyst® Control Center failing to be updated with the current setting 737-22342

The rotate desktop settings are no longer grayed-out in ATI Catalyst® Control Center when using the ATI Radeon® X1600 series products. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number. 737-22771

Doing a guest log-in user switch under Windows no longer results in a Catalyst® Control Center warning message appearing prior to launching the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22773

Catalyst® Control Center: The background color no longer changes when clicking any control in the Adjustment pane under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATI Radeon® X1600 product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22776

Using Catalyst® 6.3 or higher along with the MMC version 9.13 and performing a TV channel scan may result in some higher TV channels failing to be detected. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22381

Catalyst® Control Center: Running the OverDrive™ automated configuration utility no longer results in the default clock values being returned. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22779

The display mode of 1024x768 60Hz is now available when using connecting a Sony KV-27 using the HDMI connector on an ATI Radeon® X1x00 series of product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22780

Rotation may fail to function properly when SurroundView is enabled on systems containing an ATI Xpress 200 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22781

Windows XP starter edition: Malaysia: The ATI un-installer no longer displays a blank warning message it is clicked in the add and remove programs. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22783

Toggling between a full screen DOS session and a windowed mode DOS session no longer results in the display failing to respond and requiring a system re-boot to recover. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22784

An ATI Catalyst® Control Center dialog box indicating that the feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable is no longer displayed when attempting to install the display driver and Catalyst® Control Center under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATI Radeon® 1x00 series of product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22785

Display corruption is no longer noticed when using the Catalyst® Control Center under the Windows XP operating system with an ATI Radeon® X1800 series installed. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22789

An incorrect product name is no longer displayed when using OpenGL renderer. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22795

Installing the Catalyst® Control Center under the Windows XP (French version) no longer results in text found within the Catalyst® Control Center being out of position. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22797

The OverDrive™ aspect found in the Catalyst® Control Center is no longer available for products that do not support the feature. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22355

Hotplugging a DFP display device to port number 2 on an ATI Radeon® X1800 product no longer results in the DFP display device defaulting to clone mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22799

Emergency Mustache Response

2006-07-27T16:04:00.000-05:00

Ok. I've finally started back up on the Emergency Mustache Response (EMR) website. Check it out and leave me some feedback!

Emergency Mustache Response

Oh. This site will change frequently, so keep checking back! Also, excuse the strange ranting. I was just trying to fill up some space. The site is best viewed on Firefox, Flock, or Netscape, but it will work just fine with IE 6 and IE 7 Beta 3.

Web Browser for the Nintendo DS

2006-07-24T22:12:00.000-05:00

Looks like there is a web browser for the Nintendo DS now. It is a collaboration of Nintendo and Opera.

Opera's Official Link
Nintendo DS Browser (Official site - Japanese)

Sam's Oriental Store (Little Rock, AR)

2006-07-24T15:19:00.000-05:00

I was going through Little Rock to Datafix (we use them for printer repairs,) when I remembered that there was a great little Asian store (Sam's Oriental Store,) on the way. I ran by and saw that they were going to open in thirty mintues, so I decided to swing in for memories sake on my way back through.

Man I'm glad I stopped! I bought Ramune, Pocky (Kurogoma flavor; pocky is pronounced like "pokey,") and some BLACKBLACK gum by Lotte. Anyways, I picked up some much needed tempura mix and a few things for a friend of mine. If you live in the area or are passing through, swing by and check out there selection! I'm planning on making regular trips down there since we have several store locations in the area. Anyways, there is a map below for directions off of I630.

Google Mars

2006-07-23T16:23:00.000-05:00

I'm a little behind on this, but Google had launched a satellite map site similar to Google Earth. It's kind of neat, except you can't fly to destinations like you can in Google Earth (not that I know of any Martian destinations to look at.)

Google Mars

Java Morse Code Translator

2006-07-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

I found this site the other day while looking at other "code" sites. It allows you to type in a word or phrase, then translate it into morse code. You can also play the morse code. Anyways, looked interesting.

Java Morse Code Translator

Major drops in AMD prices!

2006-07-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

Looks like AMD is dropping all of their prices to compete with Intel's new line of processors.

Dailytech Article

Official ROM update for the Cingular 8125 PDA/Phone

2006-07-18T18:08:00.000-05:00

HTC has updated the ROM for the Cingular 8125. I'm about to install it now, and I will post my findings later on.

The update can be found here.

*UPDATE*
Ok. I've updated my 8125. So far I've noticed that the Communications Manager has been totally revamped. Also, there is a new icon on my PDA's desktop when the USB is connected. It is similar to the one that shows up in Windows XP when you plug in certain flash drives. I lost all of my data when I updated, which was a small inconvience, but overall the installation went smoothly. I've not missed any calls this morning and (after reloading my Agile Messenger,) texts, IMs, and e-mails seem to be working just fine. I've not really had much time to load various apps, but I've heard rumour that this update will help when running an app and receiving a call. Time will tell!

I'm looking for old electronics.

2006-07-17T13:19:00.000-05:00

I'm looking for old electronics. Things like projectors, computers, laptops, video game systems, radios, anything electronic. It can be broken or work perfectly. I really can't afford to go out and buy these kinds of things, so if anyone has some stuff laying around that they want to get rid of, you can contact me at my e-mail address mumeii@gmail.com. Let me know what kind of condition it's in and how it will be shipped. I'm going to take everything that I get and do some modding to it. I have a lot of projects in mind, so every little bit helps! I will posting the mods on this blog and links to step by step instructions (with pictures and videos,) along with credits for anyone who donated/sold me items.

As a side note, I'm going to start posting computer how-to's and tweaks for those who care to view them. Thanks, again, for any contributions.

Phew! Long night.

2006-07-09T00:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm working on the EMR (Emergency Mustache Response) site tonight. It's around 12:30 AM right now. Anyways, I've got a basic site up over at http://emr.xlphp.net . All that's there is a basic player with a few songs and a link to a Live Chat (both need Flash to run.) Anyways, I'm having issues with the chat service, so I'll work on that tomorrow. I'm going to work on a template for the site tonight and re-encode Sweetheart so that it does not sound like a bunch of chipmunks! Anyways, let me know what you think of the player and chat. I'm using CoffeeCup tools to implement them.

Anime Episodes.net

2006-06-26T11:40:00.000-05:00

Wow. Free streaming Anime. Tons of series! FREE!!! You can even add them to your blog (embed them.)

AnimeEpisodes.net

New Super Smash Bros.

2006-06-24T09:05:00.000-05:00

Check it out.

Da Link

Ok. Fife / EMR update.

2006-06-24T08:53:00.000-05:00

If you've not figured it out by now, Fife is no more. The band split after much debate. Chris, the lead singer and guitarist has banded together a new band by the name of Emergency mustache Response (EMR.) For some band info and songs, check out their MySpace page. The old Fife web site will be defunct until I get off my lazy butt and change it, until then, relive your Fife memories. If you click really slow and shoot water into your eyes, it will be like a slow-motion flashback ^_^

Mating Game Promo by Bitter:Sweet

2006-06-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

Looks like Roman has been busy again!

Dell buys Alienware.

2006-05-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

Looks like the rumours are true. Alienware has been purchased by Dell.

Full Article at PC Gamer here.

Microsoft's war machine seems to be gearing up...

2006-05-23T11:19:00.000-05:00

If you've been following Microsoft's recent releases, then you've noticed that quite a few betas have been released to the general public. Among these are Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2, Windows Media Player 11 Beta, Windows Live Beta (which features a whole new slew of programs such as Messenger 8.0 and a new antivirus program,) Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Beta, and Microsoft Defender Beta 2 (formally known as Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta 1.) All of these are a peek into the newest Windows build, Vista. I've had my hands on a copy of Windows Vista Beta 1 for quite a long time now. the first time I loaded it on a machine, I was stunned by just how much had changed. The first thing noticed is the look. It has a heavy Linux / Mac OS X look and feel. I had no problems with drivers for my ATI card or my Sound Blaster Live! (though I had to turn Windows XP compatibility on the Creative setup file to install the drivers.) For the most part, all of my programs and games ran just fine. Also, i've played around with the new Microsoft Office 12 Beta 2.

The amazing Wii

2006-05-21T19:40:00.000-05:00

Check out the new videos of the Wii's new controller design on Nintendo's official site.

You can see more at Nintendo's Wii site.

So you missed last week's episode of Lost?

2006-05-10T21:14:00.000-05:00

No problem! ABC is now streaming episodes from the previous link! Just follow the link below to see last week's episode FREE!

ABC Streaming

I wish we could have DoCoMo cell phones here :(

2006-05-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

DoCoMo is the leading cell phone company in Japan. Below is a link to their English site. They have some of the most advanced phones over in Japan. They are always up on us by at least a year or two!

NTT DoCoMo

*edit* Check out the "FingerWhisper" It is CRAZY!

Free comic book day is SATURDAY!!!

2006-05-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

So hurry to your nearest comic book store and geek out on all the raw illustrations ^_^ But hurry! May 6th is it! It's not free comic book weekend :P

Free Comic Book Day

A great FREE picture editor!

2006-05-05T18:51:00.000-05:00

I'm a big Adobe fan, but I must admit, the Gimp is a great program, and best of all, it's open source! You know what that means, kiddies. It's free. And not the kind of free that gets you five to ten with your good pal Bubba in pen. The kind of free that gives you a little warm fuzzy deep down in your innards. Oh yeah. That kind of free. So check out the Gimp and tell me what you think!

Buy some original Roman Dirge artwork!

2006-05-05T18:44:00.000-05:00

Roman is selling some of his original art work to fund a short film by the name of "Biter." If he makes enough money, the short film will be released for FREE to all the masses of the internet! yay!

See Roman Dirge's Live Journal for information.

Wow. Playing video games with your thoughts.

2006-04-30T22:28:00.000-05:00

Looks like there is a company working on a game system that can be played using nothing but "thoughts." Neat.

MercuryNews.com Article