Erano gli anni del dominio incontrastato di Street Fighter, re dei picchiaduro 2D. Tanti “cloni” erano stati prodotti per rubargli il trono, ma nessuno riuscì nell’intento. Poi, un giorno i programmatori della Midway, ebbero la brillante idea di lavorare su un progetto, che doveva alleviare un po’ l’attenzione sul capolavoro Capcom. Così crearono Mortal Kombat, una produzione che creò “un genere nel genere”. Fece il suo esordio nelle sale giochi di tutto il mondo nel 1992 ed ebbe un impatto incredibile sugli amanti del genere picchiaduro. Fece poi la sua comparsa su Amiga 500, PC, Sega Master System, Mega Drive, Sega CD, Game Gear, Game Boy e Super Nintendo.

Le novità introdotte erano veramente tante e di ottima fattura. Innanzitutto l’aspetto grafico, infatti crearono i personaggi giocabili tramite la digitalizzazione di attori reali; precedentemente l’Atari tentò questa strada con il picchiaduro dell’Amiga Pit Fighter, ma non riuscirono a ricreare la pulizia e la fluidità di movimento, che invece caratterizzano il titolo Midway.

Dal punto di vista dei comandi la novità fu il tasto di parata, usato per la prima volta in un picchiaduro. Inoltre le mosse erano complicate e necessitavano di un minimo di allenamento; una volta presa la mano era possibile fare delle combo di calci e pugni devastanti.

Ma veniamo alla caratteristica principale di Mortal Kombat: la VIOLENZA. Ad ogni pugno e calcio inflitto, il sangue sgorgava a fiumi. E quando il nemico terminava l’energia, appariva la scritta FINISH HIM! (la cui voce è diventata un mito) e rimaneva in balia dell’avversario per circa 5 secondi. Proprio in questi 5 secondi si poteva tirare fuori il lato più violento del gioco con le Fatality. Attraverso una combinazione si poteva fare a brandelli l’intero a corpo, estragli il cuore e via dicendo. Purtroppo ci furono delle censure, totale per la versione del Super Nintendo e sbloccabile tramite codici per Amiga e Mega Drive.

I personaggi disponibili dall’inizio erano 7 (Liu Kang, Sub Zero, Scorpion, Sonya, Johnny Cage, Raiden, Kano) più Reptile, sbloccabile durante il gioco. La struttura del gioco consisteva in combattimenti al meglio dei tre round. Dopo sei scontri con altri personaggi, ci si doveva scontrare con se stessi nel mirror match; in seguito si dovevano affrontare tre endurance match, in cui si combatteva con tro due personaggi ad incontro (ucciso uno, compariva subito l’altro). Superata questa prova difficile, ci attendevano i due scontri finali: contro il mostro a 4 braccia Goro e il boss di turno Shang Tsung, che aveva il potere di assumere le sembianze, e di conseguenza le mosse, di tutti i personaggi del gioco.

Tutte le versioni di Mortal Kombat:

• Mortal Kombat 2 (1993)
• Mortal Kombat 3 (1995)
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1996)
• Mortal Kombat Trilogy (1996)
• Mortal Kombat 4 (1997)
• Mortal Kombat Gold (1999)
• Mortal Kombat Advance (2003)
• Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002)
• Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition (2003)
• Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004)
• Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005)
• Mortal Kombat: Unchained (2005)
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006)
• Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe (2008)

QUI il video dimostrativo con le esecuzioni delle Fatality.

Sabe, as vezes tenho medo de meus desejos, porque Deus é tão maravilhoso comigo, que eles sempre realizam… Por isso, antes de desejar, certifico-me que é aquilo que quero e que nada possa sair errado.

Há alguns meses tive a brilhante idéia de escrever um livro, sobre minha adolescência e toda a minha maluquice, que não foi pouca nesse período. Desde então, comecei a entrevistar amigos, me deu uma saudade louca das melhores amigas, sonhei com algumas pessoas, troquei e-mails com outras e inesperadamente, encontrei a Iraci. Fomos muito amigas no colégio.

Foto da Iraci roubada do Orkut.

A Ira e eu tínhamos algumas coisas em comum, a primeira dela era o amor por escrever cartas para os amigos e para os nossos amores. Eu ainda conservo o prazer em escrever, agora não mais para os destinatários de antes, e creio que sou muito mais lida atualmente, tenho pelo menos 2 mil visitas por dia nesse single blog.
Iraci fiquei muito feliz em te encontrar e matar um pouquinho da saudade louca que tem aqui dentro do meu peito. Obrigada Deus, por ser sempre tão amável e misericordioso comigo.

Hoje eu trouxe a história de uma amiga, que conheço desde pekinininha…
Lhes apresento Thais Paixão…

Minha amiga me apresentou pela internet um rapaz que por vista parecia ser uma ótima pessoa.
Eu fiquei muito empolgada, falei pra ela, nossa me passa o MSN dele, e ela falo assim nossa Thais o pior que é ele é muito enjoado, ai eu pensei , nossa então esquece que eu nem quero mais não.
E assim ficou por isso mesmo, ai um certo dia ela foi passear na minha casa, ela pega e entra na net, ai eu disse que lindo que ele é.
Ela me pega e fala pra ele que eu chamei de lindo, ai eu disse: fala pra ele me adiciona.E ele me adicionou, e começamos a conversar a partir desse dia nunca mais ficamos sem nos falar.
Com o passar dos dias agente foi se conhecendo melhor, e foi criando um certo sentimento um pelo outro, um sentimento legal. Mais isso só foi cada dia aumentando, aumentando, e não parou, hoje agente se curte muito, até demais, e daqui alguns dias vamos nos conhecer melhor.

Essa é minha historia.

Espero que tenham gostado Bjus

*MEL*

ps: Imagem retirada de: http://punknidea.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/relacionamento-virtual-acabou-de-entrar-2/

aSCIIaRENA has been announced by Up Rough and Divine Stylerz. Now you can easily watch fresh Amiga ASCII online, the way it was supposed to look, and hang out with elite ASCII boyz and girls. The site has some of the usual “social media” features such as a wall, forums, private messaging, voting, up/downloads. But those features are derived from old BBS-culture and not the Internet per se.

BBSs were extensively used already in the 1980s, and formed the backbone that allowed the cracker- and demoscene to blossom as somewhat isolated phenomena. Since a BBS is text-based, designers had to work with the default text characters that were sent over the phone lines. ASCII-artists designed graphics and logotypes in a graffiti-like style, quite different from current naive ASCII art online, the net.art ASCII-style of the 1990s, or earlier attempts of text art in the 1920s or 1860s.

ASCII artists release collections of their work (ASCII collys) and it’s these collys that are indexed at aSCIIaRENA. I think that almost all of it looks great, but I have a very soft spot for Amiga ASCII. I ran a small and shitty BBS in the mid 1990s (google-one-hit-wonder, almost), and called local boards with my 2400 baud modem. If you want read more on text art, check this post.

]]> http://abrindopuertas.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/conselho-de-amiga/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:48:53 +0000 abrindopuertas http://abrindopuertas.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/conselho-de-amiga/

Verdades… A verdade deve ser dita? Omitir é mentir? E florear, é mentir? A vida em sociedade nos obriga a utilizar o subterfúgio das “mentirinhas” inofensivas. Até o ser mais honesto do mundo um dia sucumbe a uma mentirinha para agradar alguém. Por vezes, utilizamos estas mentirinhas para nós mesmos: “vai ser só dessa vez; Só mais esse brigadeiro; Vou tomar só um choppinho”

Não sou a maior defensora da mentira. Seria perfeito se pudéssemos ser honestos o tempo todo. Mas isto não ocorre na prática. Imagina se falássemos tudo o que nos vem à mente? (O que vem da minha mente, então?)

Alguns momentos somos obrigados a mentir, ainda que preferíssemos omitir. Claro que quando uma amiga pergunta o que achou daquele novo corte de cabelo, ou daquela tintura, você não pode ficar calada, sair correndo, inventar um desmaio repentino, nem muito menos falar que a cor do novo cabelo está parecendo papel de pão. Em nome da amizade, somos obrigados a falar eufemismos para não magoar os sentimentos alheios.

“O que você achou do novo corte? Está diferente, bem moderno, mas prefiro como estava antes”. Está horrível, mas que bom que cabelo cresce.

“Gostou do carinha que estou saindo? Ah, ele parece ser uma boa pessoa”. O cara é sem sal. Quando a amiga gosta do cara vai elogiá-lo com muito mais ênfase.

“Ele é bonito? Ele tem uma beleza exótica”. Ah, tá. O ornitorrinco também é um ser exótico e nem por isso ele é bonito. A pessoa apenas não é tão feia quanto poderia ser.

“Ela é falsa magra = Ela tem compartimentos escondidos onde guarda toda a gordura.” Certo… E este compartimento secreto chama-se barriga!

“Ninguém percebeu, não liga para isso.” Humm. Esta frase é fatal. Você fez alguma merda e todo o mundo viu, ouviu, ou sentiu. Ou tudo isso ao mesmo tempo, não nessa mesma ordem. “A gente marca qualquer dia desses”. Vai ficar esperando sentada que vocês nunca vão sair.

“Nossa, nem dava para perceber que você tinha engordado tanto!” Claro que percebemos, mas este tipo de coisa não se comenta. Ainda mais se a amiga for chorona.

Estas são algumas frases que usamos ou que usam com a gente, mas que nos fazem muito mais felizes .A verdade nem sempre é a melhor opção.

PortaMod by Syphus, mentioned earlier, is now announced for the public here! It’s a new player for older music formats, which offers alot more than performing/visualizing recorded music. It’s basically a library for Processing to play MOD/XM/S3M, currently presented in a few different forms, for example the Chipdisco. It offers two decks for DJ-action, and is also a great way to perform your own music live. You can tranpose songs, tempo changes, automatic beatmatch, loop quarters of patterns and jump inbetween them, mute individual channels. And you can use either keyboard, mouse, or MIDI. Chipdisco also allows you to navigate through songs with the cursor keys. Left/right changes the song position in the pattern list, while up/down goes a step up or down in the current pattern playing.

The source will be shared, so it will be interesting to see what the future holds for MOD/XM/S3M performances/visualizers in Processing. (For those using Supercollider, you can use Fredrik Olofsson’s redMOD and redXM here.)

Por un lado, siento que debería escribirte esto que te conté. Por otro, tengo que escribir unos correos electrónicos a otras personas y por motivos más fuertes que el simple amor.

Me emocionó cuando me dijiste en la tarde “¿me quieres?”, por eso te respondí “te quiero mucho”. De ahí más bonito todavía la prueba de confianza que me pusiste y que yo hasta el momento, al menos de manera nominal, respondí tan bien.

Del resto no nos hemos portado muy bien, porque de decir, al menos yo: nunca un marista, ya viste lo que nos pasó. Y que tú, quizás por escondérmelo para evitarte la molestia, jamás me dijiste que aquél era marista. Nosotras, como mercedarias, los teníamos casi como destino y a mí, maní. Hasta que me dijeron el otro día que el que ya sabes era po. Un balde de agua fría, ajajajajaja.

Luego he tratado de buscar otras vías que me lleven a la felicidad, como la prueba extrema, propusiste tú que de agilidad, en las Torres del Paine, que para allá iré aunque lo dudo que en las condiciones que te explicaba. Nada de pruebas de agilidad, aunque te confieso que me encantaría. Ya lo sabes.

Todo esto del IRA se me va a olvidar en un par de semanas, si no en diez días. Dudo que a ti te pase lo mismo, en todo caso. Con esto que acabo de escribir se me olvida la amistad y entro en el plano de la maldad, pero me conoces, nuestro amor es así, tú alla y yo aquí.

Hemos querido encontrar el amor, hemos querido casarnos sin tener con quién y sacando las cuentas vamos maoma nomás. Pal caso, yo creo que tenemos más tiempo que el que tú crees que tenemos, ergo, soy más optimista (mentira, yo ya perdí todas las esperanzas dado mi carácter huraño).

De todos modos quiero decirte que le echaré valor junto a ti, porque no nos podemos quedar así, en especial no pasando el Año Nuevo en Chicureo pues no nos va ni nos viene. Y ya no quiero comentar nada más porque me dijiste algo que me dolió y en pos de conservar nuestra amistad mejor no.

Dos cosas:

1. Una mujer tiene que hacer lo que una mujer tiene que hacer.

2. No basta con parecer un hombre, hay que serlo.

Yachao.

Uma pequena homenagem às minhas maiores companheiras de trabalhos da faculdade… A gente sabe se sintonizar, ainda bem!

Adoro muito as duas!! E que venham muitos projetos pela frente… Hehehehe

Dices k estas sola…

Sola aunk tienes muestras de cariño alrededor de ti…

Chika ke pasa?  Abre tus ojos!!! Habemos gente k te keremos, posiblemente x tu egoismo te impida recapcitar.  Crees k tus asuntos son de interes para todos, k no te das cuenta k tu actitud aleja a todos de ti, xk 100pre estas de mal humor, refuñas ke hace frio, k hace calor, ke llueve, ke el aire, en fin…

Piensa y escribe tus logros x mínimos que sean, te darás cuenta de cuantas cosas importantes haz hecho en tu vida.  Haz aprendido a caminar,  sonreír, amar, cosas tan sencillas pero son tus logros finalmente, y tú, tú tienes que celebrarlos…

Y estar orgullosa de ellos, no te sientas sola, si tienes a tu lado la persona k mas te ama… y no te haz dado cuenta, date cuenta de ello y verás k es mucho más fácil ver y sentir cuantos más te aman tambn.  Esa persona de quien te hablo, ERES TU MISMA!!!!

Amate a ti misma, como tu kieres k te amen los demás!!

Han pasado ya 3 meses de que Pancha se fue y hoy mi amiga veterinaria rescató un gatito bebé del mercado. Resulta que una niñita lo saco a pasear estilo Paris Hilton en su bolsita como si los animales fueran juguetes y así fue como se brincó y se le escapó. Su mamá y ella la buscaron y no había señal de la gatita, así que se fueron a casa. Mi amiga se encontró a la gatita en un puesto y le pregunto al que lo atendía que porque tenía una gatita tan chiquita ahí, el del puesto le contó la historia de la niña y le dijo que al rato los perros se encargaban de allá, eso no se podía permitir y ahora tengo una nueva gatita o gatito que no se sabe todavía qué es. Ahora tengo un mini minino, calcula mi amiga que tiene como 6 semanas apenas mes y medio y es muy juguetón y simpático.

Another World

W komentarzach do poprzedniego wpisu, Crazzie zasugerował rozpoczęcie AMIświatkowej przygody od gry Flashback. Miło było czytać że kojarzy ten tytuł, jednakże moim skromnym zdaniem wypadałoby zacząć od Another World, za której sequel uważany jest Flashback.  W ramach sprostowania — obie gry stworzone zostały przez Delphine Software International, mają myląco podobny gameplay i kilka wspólnych rozwiązań, jednakże nie są one w żaden sposób połączone fabularnie. Przynajmniej ja się takiego związku nie doszukałem, jeżeli jestem w błędzie to poprawcie mnie. Mimo wszystko, postanowiłem rozpocząć od starszej produkcji Delphine Software. Dlaczego? Nie wiem, prawdopodobnie ze względu na chronologię, w oba tytuły wciąż zdarza mi się zagrywać ;].
Another World (znany w innych częściach świata jako Outer World oraz Out of this World) to przygodowo-platformowa gra, która opowiada o losach młodego fizyka, Lestera Knighta Chaykina. Po drobnym wypadku, w którym główny udział miały piorun i akcelerator cząstek, Lester przeniesiony zostaje do innego świata, w którym musi zmierzyć się z tamtejszymi mieszkańcami oraz lokalnymi bestiami.
W zależności od lokacji w której się właśnie znajdujemy, mamy różne możliwości gameplayowe. Zanim zdobędziemy pistolet (bajery i lasery wchodzą w grę, a co!), naszą jedyną bronią są kopniaki, spryt i ucieczka. Sama broń również ma ciekawe możliwości. Jako, że gra korzysta jedynie z pięciu przycisków (prawo, lewo, góra, dół, fire — tak, to norma dla Amigowych gier, które nie wymagają klawiatury to w zależności od długości przytrzymywania przycisku fire, uzyskamy odmienne efekty w użyciu naszej zabawki. Możemy strzelać małymi, laserowymi pociskami, tworzyć ochronną tarczę czy kumulować energię i niszczyć za pomocą naszego podręcznego lasera tarcze i ściany. Cool, huh?
Gra została wydana w roku 1991, dotychczas zaś zasilała bazę gier wielu sprzętów — od Amigii, przez PC, SNES’a, Segę Mega Drive (Genesis), aż po Atari ST, 3DO, Maca, Segę Mega-CD i telefony komórkowe. O popularności gry świadczy również fakt, iż doczekała się ona remake’u z okazji piętnastnej rocznicy wydania. O tej wersji jednak nie za wiele jestem w stanie powiedzieć, bo nawet do niej nie dotarłem, dla mnie wydanie z początku lat ‘90 jest w zupełności wystarczające.
W moim odczuciu gra nie straciła na świeżości. Kilka miesięcy temu postanowiłem sobie odświeżyć ten tytuł, i cóż, ku mojemu zaskoczeniu ZNOWU wciągnąłem się w mroczny klimat gry i ZNOWU niesamowicie dużo frajdy sprawiało mi przejście tej legendarnej już pozycji. Jeżeli przed tym tytułem zniechęca Was grafika, to może warto sięgnąć choćby po remake i zapoznać się z Another World?

No i jeszcze w ramach ciekawostki coś zarówno dla fanów oldschoolu, jak i LBP:

Lotus

Trylogia Lotus to prawdopodobnie najpopularniejsza seria gier wyścigowych które zostały wydane na Amigę.  Wszystkie trzy części (tj. Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (1990), Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 (1991) oraz Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge (1992)) szybko zdobyły popularność i były, moim zdaniem, niedoścignionym w swojej kategorii tytułem na tę platformę.
W pierwszej z gier spod znaku Lotus poziom trudności zaskakiwał. Właściwie, to jak na mój gust zaskakuje do dziś, może dlatego że miałem niewiele kontaktu z grami wyścigowymi w ogóle… no ale dajcie spokój, uzupełnianie paliwa? Człowiek się skupia na omijaniu przeszkód, wyprzedzaniu innych aut a tu bang, no fuel. No to co, odwiedzamy pit stop i dalej skupiamy się na trasie, i tak do kolejnego razu. Jeżeli zaś chodzi o przeszkody, to w zależności od toru miały one różny charakter, a to wyczekiwały nas roboty drogowe, a to lód… nawet kłody stawiane nam były na drodze, tak więc łatwo nie było.
W Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 natomiast zaszło kilka zmian z porównaniem do pierwszej części. Przede wszystkim mamy do wyboru dwa samochody, a nie jeden, jak to miało miejsce poprzednio. Do tego zrezygnowano z opcji uzupełniania paliwa, oraz pozbyto się muzyki podczas rajdu. Zawężono też liczbę tras. O ile poprzedniczka posiadała ich aż trzydzieści dwie, o tyle tutaj twórcy oferują nam ich jedynie osiem. Mimo wszystko to właśnie ten tytuł zeżarł najwięcej mojego czasu, sam nie wiem dlaczego
Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge jest pewnego rodzaju hybrydą poprzednich części. Łączy rozwiązania jednej i drugiej, chociażby w przypadku trybów gry. Do wyboru mamy zarówno mistrzostwa, jak i jazdę na czas. Wszystko to zostało okraszone edytorem tras, nowym samochodem oraz lokacjami których wcześniej nie mięliśmy okazji eksplorować. Powróciła także muzyka podczas wyścigów.
We wszystkie z tych gier można zagrywać się zarówno w pojedynkę jak i w trybie multiplayer. Dzielony ekran naszych telewizorów nie jest jakoś wyjątkowo drażniący, a zabawa z przyjaciółmi sprawia zdecydowanie więcej frajdy aniżeli konkurowanie ze sztuczną inteligencją. Wydaje mi się, że trudno też nie zwrócić uwagi na soundtrack. Każda z części okraszona jest świetnymi kawałkami, które mimo upłyu lat nie tracą na świeżości, o czym świadczą chociażby wciąż licznie powstające remiksy utworów pochodzących z tejże serii gier. Ogólnie rzecz biorąc — warto spróbować, dla fanów gier wyścigowych natomiast — stuprocentowy must have! ;]

It’s good fun catching up with games I missed first time around. In this case, I’m talking about Paradroid ’90, which in turn was a port/update to the original Paradroid on the C64. The Andrew Braybrook programmed C64 original is the best known version, and stands up as one of the essential titles for the old 8-bit machine.

The Amiga version, also by Braybrook, boasts improved graphics and sound thanks to the much more powerful hardware. So I guess the question is cosmetic improvements aside – does the Amiga version fare as well as the classic C64 original? 5 years and a new generation of hardware separate the two games, but does that count for anything?

Read on…

Well, as you might expect the basic game is identical on both platforms. Viewed from a top down perspective, you’re tasked with clearing a spaceship of rogue droids that have taken it over. You play as an Influence Droid, the weakest droid on the ship, ranked 001 of 999. It has only the laser version of a pea-shooter as a weapon, but you’re unlikely to use it all that often anyway. More importantly, the droid has a “transfer beam” which allows you to take over the higher ranked droids.

A take-over attempt consists of a mini-game where you have to light more diodes than your opponent. Success means you are now in control of the defending droid, failure means both defending droid and the droid you are currently in control of explode. If you’re not in control of a droid, then the Influence Droid will buy the farm and it’s game over.

The transfer mini game.

So, once you’re in control of a droid you have it’s powers, which comes in handy if they’re armed. But the more powerful the droid, the faster the droid degrades until it explodes, leaving you as poor old 001 again so it’s important to transfer often. Once all droids on a deck are destroyed then the lights dim, you head to the elevator and choose another deck. Once the ship is clear, you’re placed on the next ship which of course is harder, with higher ranked droids. There are 8 ships in total, not that I’ve ever gotten beyond the second, but I hear once the final ship is complete it loops on that ship with harder and harder droids.

Thus we come to my first problem with Paradroid ’90 – the graphics. As you might expect, the Amiga’s power is used to produce graphics that are miles better than anything the C64 could output and for the most part they fit the game well. The issue I have is that in the C64 original each droid was represented by a number. 001 being the influence droid right up to 999 which was the hardest. Paradroid ’90 is completely lacking these numbers, with individual sprites representing the different droids. As you can imagine this looks a lot better, but it loses that immediate feedback. Generally it’s not until they open fire that you can tell if it’s a danger or not, and even then there’s no way to tell which droid is of a greater rank than another. Eventually you may learn through how quickly they degenerate once captured, or how good they are at the mini-game but the immediacy is gone. A shame.

Compounding the issue of ranks are the controls, which again are mostly fine and functional apart from one issue. To activate the transfer beam, you have to leave the joystick centred and hold the fire button. Holding a direction will fire your pea-shooter, and it takes just a little too long before the beam starts up. This leads to awkward moments whenever you face a droid that will shoot at you, as you dart around trying to dodge bullets and get the transfer beam to actually engage. Unfortunately you’ll find you’ll be getting the game over screen an awful lot because of this little “quirk” in the controls.

Not that there isn’t fun to be had with Paradroid ’90. It requires some investment before you begin to see reward, so perhaps not one for quick gaming bursts every now and again. Nor is it an easy game, the destruction of the Influence Droid means game over, so it’s possible to lose within seconds with a score of 0 if you’re not careful or unlucky enough to start on a deck with combat ready bots. The first time you even clear a deck though and the light goes out, it feels like an achievement. Then the next deck, and the next…

The main game

There are some nice details as well. Each droid feels more of an individual than in the C64 version, and all have their own strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited. You’ll also learn to be afraid of the command droid, which emits a spooky, droning noise when you’re on the same deck as it. In a nice touch the game takes advantage of the Amiga’s stereo sound so you can tell whether it’s on the left or right of the deck.

In the end it feels Braybrook did a better job first time round with the C64 original. There were actually a few different versions but generally only things like improvements to the scrolling were changed. Heavy Metal Paradroid being named by most as the definitive version. Paradroid ’90 is an example of how a game can be changed due to a couple of relatively small changes.

To actually play Paradroid ’90 you’re going to have to go the emulation route. I believe there is at least one remake of the original Paradroid, but for ’90 specifically emulation is the only answer. The excellent Lemon Amiga will be the best starting place, as it’s a superb resource for anything Amiga related.

O tempo voa e a vida nos leva aos mais variados rumos… Carol é daquelas amigas que a gente sabe que vai levar pro resto da vida…

Fiz esse desenho pra dar de presente no Chá de Panela dela.

Kerol, desejo que vc seja IMENSAMENTEEEE feliz!!

skleg.de | Giana Sisters

Das waren noch Zeiten am Amiga damals da waren Jump&Run noch richtig geil ! Schade das es so spiele heute nimmer gibt aber dafür kann man die jetzt kostenlos auf www.skleg.de spielen über den Browser.

http://skleg.de/view/57/The-Great-Giana-Sisters.htm

Dear Gaming Gods please can we have………

Over the years (Too many now, unfortunately.) since we have been gaming we have seen many great games come and go. Whether it was a game that never got a sequel, or in some cases, a sequel that never lived up to the original or a franchise that deserves to be raised from the ashes of gaming history with a full re-boot.

It seems that the movie industry is keen to breathe new life into long dead franchises so why not games? Here is our run-down of the G4A wish list.

Elite!

Yes we know! Every games journalist worth their salt, or at least those old enough to remember this classic, have been hankering for a return of the space based trading classic. Originally created for the BBC Micro by programming team David Braben and Ian Bell Elite took the gaming world by storm.

With it’s open-ended gameplay and a massive 8 galaxies featuring 256 planets, Elite to this day remains a shinning example of what can be achieved with innovative programming.

Elite’s influence has rippled through the gaming galaxy ever since with a multitude of games borrowing the concept and trying to create that ‘Elite-type’ experience. Non have really managed to recreate the original though.

Elite has had two official sequels, Frontier and Frontier: First Encounters, both of which were full of bugs and never captured the feeling of the original or the imagination of the audience.

The good news is that Braben’s development studio ‘Frontier Developments’ have had an official sequel ‘Elite 4′ in the pipeline since 1998. The latest news is that the studio will begin full-scale work once their title ‘The Outsider’ is released. I am going to try to get some more information from the studio if I can – watch this space!

Destruction Derby

One of the PS1’s launch titles (Also launched on Sega Saturn and PC) Psygnosis’ Destruction Derby was a joyful jaunt of a driving game whereby you got to smash the crap out of your opponents cars.

Developed by Reflections, who later went on to write the driver series, this smash and crash title was one of the first to show what this new generation of arcade quality home gaming consoles were really capable of.

Its 3D graphics and unique gameplay model made Destruction Derby an instant classic. Despite a wave of sequels none of the following titles lived up to the originals, simple gameplay mechanics and course design. Recently there have been a few attempts at a similar theme, most notably Begbear Entertainments Flatout series.

The original Destruction Derby is available for download for PS3 and PSP.

The Last Ninja

One of, if not the biggest titles on the C64 was System 3’s The Last Ninja. An isometric fighting puzzler that redefined what people would come to expect from fighting games.

Blending gameplay styles of puzzles, platform and fighting games, The Last Ninja was a massive hit winning tons of awards and critical acclaim. The game itself spawned 3 sequels, Last Ninja’s 2 &  3 as well as The last Ninja: Remix.

The Last Ninja 2 came in a box with a mask, scroll and a rubber shuriken, that was hard enough to stick in my bedroom door. Nice!

In the  late 90’s rumours and screen shots of a fully fledged update of The Last Ninja series began to arise, and in 2003 we saw screen shots of the first level of The Last Ninja: The Return. Scheduled for a 2004 release the game even previewed at E3 yet was cancelled due to being “Simply not good enough” according to System 3 CEO Mark Cale. Heaven forbid they should just try to make it good eh?

MechAssault

The original MechAssault introduced me to the wonders of online play. A team based tear up in giant robots that systematically destroy entire cityscapes as the game unfolds.

Produced by Day 1 Studios and released by Microsoft on the original Xbox. MechAssualt’s single player game was, at best not much better than average but online the game blossomed into, in many peoples opinion, one of the best to date. The game really was one of the reasons that Xbox Live truly took off featuring some of the best pyrotechnics of any game up to that point.

A sequel MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf came a couple of years later and added the ability to leave your Mech and run around on foot. As with many such sequels the developers tried to shoehorn in too many new ideas without truly understanding their audience.

What we all wanted was an updated and polished version of the first game, with better graphics and new Mechs. It is what we still want! Forget leaving the mech when it is exploding, all we want are massive multi-player arenas with destructible buildings and giant Mechs that pack enough firepower to down the deathstar!

Imagine MechAssault rebooted for the Xbox 360? A stripped down game that looks great and allows us to kick shiny metal ass all day long!

Shenmue

It is as predictable as the sun coming up, but love it or hate it Shenmue was always going to be in this list.

Developed by Sega-AM2 and produced and directed by the legendary Yu Suzuki Shenmue was the first killer app for Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast.

You follow the life of a young Ryo Hazuki who is out on a mission of vengeance for Lan Di the man who killed his father. The game centres around you having to talk to people, learn Martial Arts, fight and also get jobs to obtain money.

Shenmue’s open world was unlike anything seen before and was a truly immersive experience. Despite the game obtaining a massive cult following and a sequel that appeared towards the end of the Dreamcasts  life (Later it made the jump to the Xbox.) The decision was made to end the series on a rather annoying cliffhanger after the second game.

We all want to know how the story finished and we would dearly love to see Shenmue 3 on one of the Next Gen consoles. If it was packaged with the first two games so new-comers could pick up the story I still believe it would see by the bucket-load, come on Sega, “Do you know anywhere where I might find some sailors?”

Cannon Fodder

Sensible software were once the best developers working in the industry, according to us anyway. we thought long and hard about which games of theirs we would like to see back and whilst a full update of Sensible World Of Soccer would be cool we plumped for Cannon Fodder.

Originally released on the Amiga and later ported to the Megadrive, Cannon Fodder was an isometric war sim where you lead a small group of soldiers on various missions. Featuring what is still to this day probably the best theme song on any game the tagline “War has never been so much fun.” ruffled a few feathers and the developers were forced to redesign the packaging to remove a poppy from the cover. Even though they offered to donate some of the takings to the poppy appeal.

A full update of Cannon Fodder would really work we feel as long as the humour was left in tact and for that John Hare would have to oversee development.

Another World

Yet another Amiga classic makes an appearance on our list. This time Another World, a side scrolling 2D platformer that really transported the player to…. well yes, Another World.

Written by Eric Chahi and published by Delphine Software it featured state of the art graphics and new gameplay elements that have now become standard, Another World really stood out from the crowd. It used cut-scenes and cinematic effects that were inspired by the Dragons Lair game but done with much surer footing of a great original work.

Eric Chahi did write a sequel called Heart of The Alien but it only ever saw the light of day on the Mega CD so pretty much nobody played it.

Delphine did allow many people to think that Flashback was Another World 2 and it sort of was, as it stole many of the original ideas of its predecessor. Eric Chahi did write a direct sequel called Heart of The Alien but it only ever saw the light of day on the Mega CD so pretty much nobody played it.

An updated 3D version of this game would be ace!

Oddworld

Created by Oddworld Inhabitants the Oddworld series was an ambitious idea to create games around a series of characters inside a complete universe.

The series started off as a 2D platformer called Abe’s Odyssee and was followed up by Abe’s Exodus. Both games followed the exploits of Abe, a lovable character, as he tried to stop his fellow Mudokon slaves from being turned into food. The games featured an innovative idea in Gamespeak where you could select certain phrases to use to interact with other characters in the game. Both games were pure bliss.

When the series went 3D it left Abe behind and introduce Munch in Munch’s Odyssee. This is where the series started to falter. Having set the standard and creating such a brilliant character as ,Munch was just a poor substitute and sales of Munch’s Odyssee suffered as a direct result.

The final game in the series was Strangers Wrath and what a fine game it was again. a 3D shooter that had some of the coolest weapons ever seen. The game earned critical acclaim but failed to capture the public’s imagination.

Poor sales figures convinced Oddworld Inhabitants that there creations future lay elsewhere and they now look to turn the universe into films or comics or something.

But to be honest the series suffered badly when they left Abe behind and a reboot featuring this brilliant character with all the humour that the series was famous for could well revive the world even if it is odd!

Black

Just before the end of the Xbox Criterion released Black. An awesome shooter that went some way to proving the giant black box was being put out to pasture before its time.

Black was FPS and a masterpiece in how to blow shit up. The game has some of the most frequent and largest explosions ever seen. It is loud, fast and crazy.

Black was criticised for its lack of depth but for the time it ran it was a joy to behold and when you consider the platform it was on then you understand the skill in Criterions development.

A sequel has been muted but with the developers milking the cash cow that is Burnout for all it is worth we are yet to see a return for this most underrated of shooters.

There are many others – I am sure Moonhead and Eddie will have their own opinions and they will be on
below.

Retro Gaming Emulation Juggernaut

Normally this is the space where we would make some clever jokes and tell you why you might like to purchase this fine product. But in the case of this amazing GP2X Wiz pocket size gaming system we’re cutting straight to the chase. If you are into retro gaming and have paid your rent this month you NEED to buy the GP2X Wiz now… like immediately… we’re not joking. Because no where else will you find a handheld gaming system with emulators for so many game systems, computer platforms and consoles. Incredible MAME emulation allows you to run all your favorite arcade video game classics, even vector games. Amiga game emulation is rock solid. You can run Atari ST games, Commodore 64, NES, SNES, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, NeoGeo, Flash Games and more too numerous to mention. Of course you’ll need to find yourself some game roms… but we have a feeling that’s no problem for you and Google.

The Wiz can do a host of other useful things besides gaming. It can play video files including MPEG4, Xvid and DIVX. You get a built in e-book reader, calendar, voice recorder… etc… you know the drill. 1GB of storage is built-in and you can expand on this with the SD (SDHC) card slot. The high-res touchscreen makes navigation easy and the gaming controls feature a d-pad on the left with buttons/d-pad on the right and two shoulder buttons on the top. It’s plenty good for anything a retro game can dish out. There is an active development community for the GP2X Wiz and with a respectable ARM9 533MHz Processor overclockable to 800Mhz you’ve got plenty of power to play with if you’re interested to write your own applications.

Important Note
The Wiz does not come with any emulator software or game roms pre-installed. Out of the box you can play some built in Flash games, but that’s it. You’ll need to download the freeware emulator for the console or computer system you want to emulate. Then you’ll need to unzip the emulator software, and copy it to an SD card along with some game roms you’ve downloaded. Then start-up the Wiz, go into the “launcher” option and run the emulator. Inside the emulator you’ll choose the rom you want to load and then the game can begin. Each emulator software interface is a bit different and most give you the option to overclock the Wiz to get the best performance. Remember you are running emulator software… most games work perfectly, but some may run slow or be glitchy. You may have to configure the controls to work well with the game you want to play. Documentation is not always the best, so you might need to put in a bit of effort to figure things out. If any of this scares you, then you may want to reconsider your purchase.

Here is a great site where you can download all the emulators available for the Wiz as well as other homebrew software. Please take a look at this before you buy.
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/wiz.cgi

As for a new project i have in mind, a text adventure with graphics like the magnetic scrolls series, I’m thinking about the image and color/palette formats the various amiga models use and handle.

The Amiga “Denise” chip is responsible for the graphical capabilities of the OCS/ECS amigas. That is the MOS 8362 “Denise” for OCS or MOS 8370 “Hires/ECS Denise” for ECS.

Amiga “Agnus” chip is responible for controlling the ChipRAM, DMA, resource management, video signals, copper and blitter.
See an “Agnus” table of various versions here.

For the 1992 upcoming AGA chipset both chips got renamed:

OCS (Original Chip Set)

• MOS 8362 “Denise”, MOS 8370/8371 “Agnus”
• Earliest Amiga models 1985-1990
  A500, A1000, A1500 (an UK specific A2000 derivate), A2000
• Kickstart 1.0+
• Palette of 4096 colors (12bit)
• Adressing up to 512kB ChipRAM

ECS (Enhanced Chip Set)

• MOS 8373 “Hires/ECS Denise”, MOS 8372-A/B or MOS 8375 “Agnus”
• Later Amiga models 1990+
  A3000, A500+, A600 and upgrade kits for older models.
• Kickstart 2.0+
• Palette of 4096 colors (12bit)

Additional features over OCS:

• Adressing 1MB/2MB ChipRAM with appropriate “Agnus”
• Display resolutions like OCS plus:
  • Productivity Mode (640×480x4 non-interlaced)
  • SuperHires Mode (1280×256x4 non-interlaced / 1280×512x4 interlaced)
• Blitter copies regions larger than 1024×1024
• Display sprites in border regions

AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture)

• MOS 8364 “Lisa” chip, formerly “Denise”
  MOS 8374 “Alice” chip, formerly “Agnus”
• Introduced 1992, first use in A4000, later A1200 (1992) and CD32 (1993)
• Kickstart 3.0+

Additional features over ECS:

• Adressing up to 2MB ChipRAM
• Palette of 16777216 colors (24bit)
• Display resolutions like ECS plus:
  • 256 colors in every indexed display mode
  • 262144 colors in HAM-8 modes
• Super Hires smooth scrolling
• 32bit fast page memory for 8bitplanes graphics modes
• Wider sprites

…to be continued…

ToDo:

• EHB modes
• Table
• Example Pictures

Sacando escritos que tenía en el tintero desde hace un tiempo y aunque el sentimiento ya no está vigente… igual y vale la pena que vean la luz.

El que busca encuentra… eso que ni qué. Hoy encontré algo que no debí –de principio- haber buscado, pero soy curiosa y me gusta darme de frente con las cosas.

Me siento un topo – ciego y torpe frente a la luz-; tal vez por eso necesito toparme con ella, estamparme de a tiro, para poderla sentir.

Siento que el estómago me tiembla, el cuerpo entero me hormiguea… me siento traicionada y por algo que yo incité y –evidentemente- se salió de mi control. Ahora tiene vida propia, secreta y obscura. Ya nada tengo que ver con el asunto, pero a alguien a quien le he confiado mi vida entera, sí. De verdad creí que su lealtad era conmigo, pero veo que juega en las dos canchas y no sé si estoy dispuesta a jugar ese juego. No estoy diciendo que esté mal, simplemente creo que yo no quiero estar ahí.

Desde mi perspectiva, ella no tendría nada que hacer ahí… ni siquiera es su amigo, estaba ahí por mi, para mí, porque yo se lo pedí –cuando menos eso creí-. Ahora ya no sé qué pensar, qué sentir, para donde jalar.

Me siento decepcionada, no sé si de ella, pero de mí seguro que sí. Espero que esta vez sí me sirva de lección para no volver a involucrar a ninguna de mis amigas en mi próxima relación, nada tienen que hacer ahí de intermediarias porque –sigo sin explicarme bien el por qué- las cosas se vuelven truculentas y turbias.

Tengo claro que en gran parte es mi responsabilidad y no sé cómo salirme del juego, porque no quiero renunciar a una amistad por una estupidez mía –que de alguna forma ella compartió conmigo-, pero ahora tampoco me siento cómoda. Tal vez no fui lo suficientemente clara al momento de explicarle mi situación con él y lo que esperaba de ella…simplemente le dije que ya no quería saber nada de él, ni si le hablaba ni si no le hablaba. Esas fueron mis palabras, pero creo que no fui nada clara porque para mi era obvio… o sea, si su lealtad es conmigo, ella ya no debería tener absolutamente nada que ver con él –mucho menos salir con él al café- ¿para qué? Para que se pitorreen de la risa de mí, para que le de por su lado o le platique algo de mi vida… seguramente me estoy dando más importancia de la que tengo (tal vez ni siquiera me mencionan), pero de igual forma, no veo por qué saldría con él. Antes de lo mío, ellos no eran amigos.

No sé, estoy confundida. La verdad es que no atino a pensar nada coherente en estos momentos. Me siento traicionada, es lo único que siento. Como si se estuvieran riendo de mí y si hay algo que no soporto, es sentir que me quieren ver la cara de pendeja.

No tengo la menor idea de si algo de lo que estoy diciendo sea real, o sea, la foto es real… todo lo demás no lo sé, pero mi imaginación ya hizo su parte. Ahí radica uno de los problemas principales de tener una ávida y desbordante imaginación.

Insisto, el que busca… encuentra. Ahora sólo me queda tratar de tranquilizarme, para tomar la mejor decisión.

The British chipmusician Syphus is a schooled composer who has been active in the Amiga demoscene for ages, written his dissertation on chip music and how its formats have survived the age of MP3-recoded music. Now he’s developing a DJ-tool for Amiga MOD-files, where instruments and sequence data is individually accessible. Recorded music enables very limited manipulation of the music but with the MOD-format you can change potentially every aspect of a song; tones and scales, rhythms, volumes, arrangement, etc. This is an old dream of mine coming true; an untapped potential of well-archived and “open source” chipmusic.

Syphus is also experimenting with the music as visual cues, making real-time visual synchronization with the MOD-files. He is presenting a first version of the project today at Dorkbot Newcastle. I have tried it out and it is very promising. Coded in the Java-based Processing, it’s possible to run it even on the web (but not on Amiga). He’s also planning on releasing the source code, if I’ve understood correctly.

I am not sure if there are other tools like this around, which is perhaps a bit surprising. Maybe it’s because you can’t play two songs simultaneously on one machine, forcing you to use blasphemous platforms that miss the 8-bit spirituality that chip-fundamentalists crave for. There is Gwem’s STj which is great to make DJ-sets on two Ataris, but afaik it doesn’t feature any music-manipulating functions.

Cuando salió de beberse el primer café del día no pudo por más que coger el móvil y escribir a sus amigas:

“Adiós; me despido de vosotras. Antes de nochevieja probablemente haya muerto de una crisis hipertensiva, o una racha de palpitaciones malignas. ¿El motivo? Me han puesto un argentino simpático y meloso que me mira con ojos de corderito en la cafetería de debajo mi casa. Me sonríe y me canta (a mí al resto, pero eso no importa) mientras trato de concentrarme en leer las noticias del periódico. Todo eso por si todavía no tenía adicción a la cafeína, ¿sabés pibe?. Si alguna de vosotras se compra la Nespresso para navidades, y como consecuencia de la crisis despiden a este chico… juro por dios que os saco un ojo con una cucharilla de café.”

Jako człowiek, którego właściwie nie interesują stacjonarne konsole obecnej generacji (no dobra, Wii kusi, ale nic poza tym , ani też produkcje które są na nie wypuszczane, muszę mieć jakieś dobre usprawiedliwienie dla takiego stanu rzeczy. Od lat tłumaczę się w tej sprawie swoją miłością do sprzętu (komputera? konsoli? sam nie wiem, każde źródło podaje inaczej), który towarzyszył mi w dzieciństwie — CDTV. To cudeńko, o możliwościach technicznych porównywalnych do popularnych w latach ‘90 komputerów A500, skrywa w swojej bibliotece gier minimum kilkadziesiąt tytułów, które w latach dziewięćdziesiątych funkcjonowały opatrzone plakietką MUST HAVE. Dlatego też postanowiłem cyklicznie przygotowywać krótkie opisy gier, które podbiły serca graczy na całym świecie. Nie mam pojęcia jaki procent czytelników tegoż bloga miał kontakt z Amigą, acz myślę, że jest to związane z wiekiem czytelników. Nie wydaje mi się bowiem, aby ludzie którzy mają obecnie lat piętnaćie, mięli wiele okazji do zapoznania się z tymi archaicznymi cudeńkami techniki, oraz grami które były na nie wypuszczane. Dla nich świat gier zaczyna się od czasów, kiedy to w Polsce rządził, jak mniemam, PSX. A może się mylę? Jeżeli tak, to poprawcie mnie — z pewnością będę bardzo mile zaskoczony, jeżeli jest inaczej! Tak czy siak, sam z wielką przyjemnością będę pisał o grach, które towarzyszą mi od czasów dzieciństwa;  a przy okazji, może którymś ze swych wpisów uda mi się zainteresować Was tymi pikselowymi cudeńkami? Wpis związany z pierwszymi grami postaram się przygotować jeszcze w tym tygodniu, więc bądźcie czujni!

O texto abaixo é uma tentativa de descrever o que já tinha escrito, mas por motivos que não vem ao caso, perdi as minhas antigas anotações.

Por muito tempo estudei em uma única escola, tive umas amizades que achei que fossem verdadeiras, que sempre passaria por aquilo, não ia nada mudar.
A verdade é que de uns quatro anos para cá, mudei totalmente o meu pensamento restrito sobre as coisas:

A princípio, sai do colégio que estudei por uns 11 anos. A amiga que eu tinha foi embora pra outro país e, mesmo com toda tecnologia de informação, não mantínhamos contato. Me afastei do restante da turma. Até então, as pessoas desse colégio eram as únicas que eu ”conhecia”.
Fui para outra escola, conheci novas pessoas e passei a ver o mundo diferente. Sem restrição. E desde então levo comigo duas coisas: nada é para sempre e nunca saberemos de tudo, sempre vamos conhecer um pouco mais da vida e das coisas.

Fiz várias amizades, as quais ”foram embora”, apareceram outras, e as antigas voltaram, mas nada igual como antes.
Até que teve uma, única amizade, que independente de tudo o que acontecia ela estava ali. Passava o tempo, fazia chuva ou sol e ela continuava ali, perto. Para qualquer coisa que se precisasse.

Então eu pude perceber que amizade mesmo, no sentido real da palavra, um dia a pessoa aprende a definir.
Não é aquela que em muitos anos se diz ”amiga” e que na verdade você está sustentando uma estrutura que já está podre.
Amiga é aquela que em poucos dias você já tem construído amizade de anos. E que em anos você já tem ela como uma irmã. E as “habilidades” então? nem se fala!

P.S.: Esse texto é para a Gabi Muniz, ela que só estudou um ano comigo, não perdemos amizade independente do que aconteceu e que me prova todo dia, que amizade verdadeira é a nossa amizade!