Jun 21 2008
2 Comments
Life in general

Spore Creature Creator

Electronic Arts released the Spore Creature Creator on Tuesday. The Creature Creator serves as a sort of demo for the full Spore game (which is currently marked for a September release), and also as a stand-alone product from Spore, because it is actually really fun. I downloaded the Trial Edition (yes, there is a full version and a trial version of what is basically a glorified Spore demo) on Wednesday, and with the help of a friend, I have created 7 creatures so far. Here are a few examples:

You can see all the creatures I’ve made so far, as well as all the creatures I will make in the future, on my page at the Sporepedia.

Anyway, the trial edition is nice, but it only has 25% of the parts that the full version has, and since the full one is only $9.95, I figured I’d download it. But wait, what’s this? It seems that EA only has the direct download option for PC users. How odd, considering that EA is offering the game for both Mac and PC platforms.

Sure, I can buy the boxed version of the Creature Creator here, for both Mac and PC, but then I’d have to pay (and wait) for shipping, something I don’t want to have to do. That plus my disc drive is broken, so physical media is useless to me. EA, why can’t I have a direct download for the Mac version? This is just stupid. It’s not like Macs can’t download things that PCs can….

After about 10 minutes of googling, I found Game Tree Online, a site devoted to direct downloads of Mac games. They have Spore imagery all over their site, but the Creature Creator download for Mac is listed as ‘coming soon’, with a pre-order available. I don’t really understand why, because if I remember correctly, EA had said that it was going to release Spore for PC and Mac at the same time, and I would tend to assume that that meant the Creautre Creator as well, in a format that’s actually useful. I’ll get it when it comes out, but I’m disappointed, EA.

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Jun 21 2008
2 Comments
Life in general

Spore Creature Creator

Electronic Arts released the Spore Creature Creator on Tuesday. The Creature Creator serves as a sort of demo for the full Spore game (which is currently marked for a September release), and also as a stand-alone product from Spore, because it is actually really fun. I downloaded the Trial Edition (yes, there is a full version and a trial version of what is basically a glorified Spore demo) on Wednesday, and with the help of a friend, I have created 7 creatures so far. Here are a few examples:

You can see all the creatures I’ve made so far, as well as all the creatures I will make in the future, on my page at the Sporepedia.

Anyway, the trial edition is nice, but it only has 25% of the parts that the full version has, and since the full one is only $9.95, I figured I’d download it. But wait, what’s this? It seems that EA only has the direct download option for PC users. How odd, considering that EA is offering the game for both Mac and PC platforms.

Sure, I can buy the boxed version of the Creature Creator here, for both Mac and PC, but then I’d have to pay (and wait) for shipping, something I don’t want to have to do. That plus my disc drive is broken, so physical media is useless to me. EA, why can’t I have a direct download for the Mac version? This is just stupid. It’s not like Macs can’t download things that PCs can….

After about 10 minutes of googling, I found Game Tree Online, a site devoted to direct downloads of Mac games. They have Spore imagery all over their site, but the Creature Creator download for Mac is listed as ‘coming soon’, with a pre-order available. I don’t really understand why, because if I remember correctly, EA had said that it was going to release Spore for PC and Mac at the same time, and I would tend to assume that that meant the Creautre Creator as well, in a format that’s actually useful. I’ll get it when it comes out, but I’m disappointed, EA.

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Jun 17 2008
Life in general

Firefox 3

Today, Mozilla released Firefox 3, the newest version of the best browser on the planet. They’re trying to break a world record, so head over and download it now!

Download Day - English

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Jun 01 2008
Life in general

WordPress 2.5

Last night at around midnight I decided to upgrade the site to WordPress 2.5, which is why the site was down for a while.

It shouldn’t look any different to you guys, but if something is broken, please tell me!

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May 31 2008
Uncategorized

Cosmic Osmo's Hex Isle


Cosmic Osmo's Hex Isle

I just received Cosmic Osmo’s Hex Isle, the latest game from Myst creator Cyan Worlds. It has a very different feel than the Myst games, a lot more dialogue and bright colors and a lot less exploration and puzzle-solving. The game is very pretty, using the newest version of Cyan’s Plasma engine, and (unsurprisingly, due to a faster dual-core processor and four times the memory) runs better on my Mac than on my PC.

The gameplay is much more similar to a ‘casual’ game than a normal video game, in that the story is extremely simple, and the game mechanic is very straightforward. Touch all 6 blue ‘hexes’ (hexagonal tiles) to complete the level. Of course, it gets more complicated as the levels go on, with moving hexes, hexes that disappear after you step on them, etc.

The game is very fun, and for a game of its caliber, it’s very pretty. Unfortunately, the only website it’s available from is Fanista, which I think is possibly the worst online retailer I have ever had the misfortune to be forced to use. Maybe you can find it on eBay?

Having played Cosmic Osmo’s Hex Isle, the only remaining Cyan game I have not played yet is the original Cosmic Osmo, which will be on Gametap next month. Can’t wait!



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May 26 2008
Life in general

New Theme, Sandpress

I installed a new theme yesterday, called Sandpress. It’s by Arpit Jacob, and I think it’s very pretty. I noticed that the search box on K2 (my old theme) was no longer working, and I was also just kind of bored of the way the whole site looked, so I spent most of yesterday shopping around for new themes, and came across this one.

However, it seems to have a problem with the sidebars, at least on my computer.

Here’s how it’s supposed to look:
How it's supposed to look

But sometimes it looks like this:
How it actually looks, sometimes

And if you scroll all the way down, the second sidebar is at the bottom:
The other sidebar, at the bottom

Does anyone else see this? For some reason it only seems to happen to me, and only when using Firefox. And even then, only sporadically. If the site looks broken to you, e-mail me or drop a comment here.

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May 26 2008
Life in general

New Theme, Sandpress

I installed a new theme yesterday, called Sandpress. It’s by Arpit Jacob, and I think it’s very pretty. I noticed that the search box on K2 (my old theme) was no longer working, and I was also just kind of bored of the way the whole site looked, so I spent most of yesterday shopping around for new themes, and came across this one.

However, it seems to have a problem with the sidebars, at least on my computer.

Here’s how it’s supposed to look:
How it's supposed to look

But sometimes it looks like this:
How it actually looks, sometimes

And if you scroll all the way down, the second sidebar is at the bottom:
The other sidebar, at the bottom

Does anyone else see this? For some reason it only seems to happen to me, and only when using Firefox. And even then, only sporadically. If the site looks broken to you, e-mail me or drop a comment here.

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May 26 2008
Uncategorized

On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1 (Demo)


I downloaded and played through the demo of Penny Arcade‘s new game, On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1. It’s pretty fun, and easy to get into. It has the comedy of a Penny Arcade comic, and the look of one, too. The graphics are not impressive, but they work. They’re very similar to the Sam and Max games, if anyone has played them.

The gameplay is very easy to understand. The exploring portion is point-and-click, while the battle screens work by selecting your attack and then the enemy to attack. Sounds simple, but it’s real-time. You have to manage up to 4 characters at once (maybe more?), while the enemy is also attacking you. It can get pretty hectic, but it wasn’t bad.

I would recommend downloading the demo to anybody, and buying the game if you like it, since it’s only $20 and available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, as well as on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

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May 26 2008
6 Comments
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Ubuntu 8.04 and the Realtek 8185 (Update)

Ok, my last post actually was not completely flawless, that method has been giving me some issues, so I found these instructions instead:

  1. Open Terminal
  2. sudo apt-get install ndisgtk
  3. Download the Windows drivers (I’ve only tested it with the XP drivers)
  4. Open System>Administration>Windows Wireless Drivers
  5. Select the .inf file from the unzipped folder you downloaded in step 3

That method worked perfectly for me, and has lasted through numerous reboots, unlike the previous way. I’ve only tested it with a WPA Personal network, no idea if it works with WEP or WPA2. If it doesn’t work, try rebooting…And you might want to install wpa_supplicant if you’re going to use WPA, but I’m not sure if that’s necessary.

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May 22 2008
3 Comments
Life in general

Ubuntu 8.04 and the Realtek 8185

I have Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) running on Artemis (my desktop), but until a few minutes ago, it had no internet connection, due to lack of drivers for the wifi card in the machine, the Realtek 8185.

I’m used to not knowing how to do anything on Linux, and usually my attempts to make things work on the open source OS end in failure, so it’s pretty cool that I figured out how to get this to work.

First, I found this tutorial [link dead], which I followed word-for-word, with no results at all. Then I checked my chipset on the wifi card, and realized that the article is for the 8187, not the 8185. So I decided to take a leap of faith, and downloaded the Win98 drivers for the 8185 (Win98 because they are the version of the 8187 drivers the tutorial uses), and then followed the tutorial again, but with the new drivers instead of the original ones.

Guess what? It worked. Flawlessly. Artemis now has wifi under Hardy Heron, and I couldn’t be happier. Now for the graphics card and my mouse…

Edit: If this doesn’t work, try this method instead!

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