Transistor

click for wallpaper

At the top of the list of amazing things that give me joy is the second game from SuperGiantGames: Transistor. Bastion will forever hold a special place in my memory for having more heart and soul than most games out there; not to mention some of the best voice and music work I’ve ever heard. I still listen to the Bastion OST pretty regularly even though I’ve not touched it in a while.

The team at SuperGiant has revealed Transistor with the same gorgeous art style and what sounds like the beginning of another perfect soundtrack; by the same amazing people. I also really like the almost turn-based nature of the combat since Bastion‘s weakest aspect was how clunky it could feel at times; perhaps this change in how combat is executed will remove those issues. Also very noteworthy is that Logan Cunningham is returning as another sort of narrator character with a similarly epic voice which makes me think the narration will again be a very strong element.

Here’s a few vids: Reveal trailer (with another song by Darren Korb & Ashley Lynn Barrett), about 15 minutes of (very early) gameplay footage and an additional link with commentary from Greg Kasavin (over the same gameplay segment), and the last one being my favorite Bastion song.

Transistor Reveal Trailer

Transistor Gameplay (without commentary)

You can watch the same Transistor Gameplay with commentary by Greg Kasavin here.

Build a Wall from Bastion (performed live by Darren Korb and Ashley Lynn Barrett)

Dungeon Defenders II

The second announcement that made me happy was Trendy Entertainment‘s reveal of Dungeon Defenders 2; though very much expected to happen at some point I wasn’t expecting it so soon. I had a lot of fun with Dungeon Defenders when it first came out but only knew 1 other person that played it so after hitting the level cap we didn’t really get much more out of it. A lot of the DLC made for the game was PC/Steam only and that was a huge shame since it looked like some of the absolute best stuff: many new characters/classes, hundreds of weapons/armor/pets added, new levels/environments by the droves, special themed armor/skins/levels/taverns, and an entire pvp arena. This game was absolutely made for DLC and it’s a shame that Microsoft imposes so many restrictions about DLC and patches and stuff. I still want to get a new PC so I can play these great games that receive so much more attention (i.e.: content updates) than their console counterparts; my fan is still broken on my tower and I haven’t touched it in maybe 2 months now.

Trendy is insanely involved with the community as their website for Dungeon Defenders has an overwhelming amount of commentary and projects and such that is frequently updated and it shows just how much the team loves what they were making. Even without the crazy long series of posts and ramblings, this trailer shows that they love what they’re doing. I’m very interested to see more Dungeon Defenders and I hope I have a new PC by the time this is out so I can get in on all the cool DLCs and mods.

This time around, Dungeon Defenders 2 is getting a MOBA game type in addition to the single-player and co-op elements where you’ll be able to go up against friends and other players in a competitive multi-player setting (like the ever popular League of Legends)

Dungeon Defenders II – Cooperative Reveal (Pre-Alpha Footage)

Sanctum 2

I don’t know if Sanctum was really a huge hit on Steam, it seemed more like it was one of those gems that most people missed. Granted I haven’t played it since shortly after I wrote my review and I don’t know what changes/additions have been made, but I never heard or read about it blowing up into something huge. That said, I’m glad it’s getting a sequel. I had a lot of fun with Sanctum and thought it was a unique game that did well in the various genres it was melding together.

The most exciting thing about this announcement is that it’s going to be available on XBLA (and PSN). My only concern with this is the same one I just voiced for Dungeon Defenders 2; that it might not ever get some of the patches or DLC that the PC/Steam version gets. I hope that with this next generation of consoles they take a few more notes from Steam and allow developers/publishers more control over their respective titles so the can push out content (and maybe even community mods) to the console players. Until such a thing happens, PC will be the way to go for a number of titles.

Sanctum 2 will have the same very clean and high-tech visual aesthetics and path management that made the Sanctum stand out over the many other tower-defense titles. They’re making a number of changes to the game that make me very happy including new classes and weapons, but the best change made is a fully developed agro system that allows you to pull enemies from their path rather than just slowing them down. This will allow for more tactical use of the characters as well as give us a reason to use the new class types. The new classes also come with a new persistent leveling system and perks (probably related to the individual classes) which should also make multiplayer much more attractive; with the inclusion of XBLA and PSN I bet co-op will be a lot more fun too.

Below is the Sanctum 2 official reveal and a short commentary from some the Dev and some dude at IGN (I don’t like them either but they’re the only ones with a good video with gameplay).

Sanctum 2 Reveal Trailer

Sanctum 2 Developer Interview

Cards Against Humanity

It’s weird to think that I’ve never talked about Cards Against Humanity, a party game for horrible people, before. I guess since it isn’t a videogame, movie, or novel it isn’t something I’d typically associate with my Ramblings, but it’s about damn time that I do! I feel it’s my duty to do so. Like many out there in the gaming world, I’m a fan (and subscriber) of GiantBomb and on several hilarious occasions, sometimes with super awesome guests, they’ve played this card game. When I first saw them play it I proceeded to laugh so much I (maybe kinda) pissed myself then placed my order. Since then I’ve got the original game deck and the 2 expansions and unfortunately I’ve only been able to play it 3 times with a good group of peoples; I say unfortunately partly because now they know just how sick and twisted I am, but mostly because I wish I could play this on a weekly basis with a whole bunch of people.

For those not in the know, Cards Against Humanity is a vulgar, adult oriented party game. Here are the rules as handed down by the gods: “To start the game, each player draws ten white “answer” cards. One randomly chosen player begins as the Card Czar, and plays a black “question” card. The Card Czar reads the question out to the group. Each player answers the question by passing one white “answer” card, face down, to the Card Czar. The Card Czar shuffles all of the answers, reads them out loud in a humorous fashion, and picks their favorite. Whoever played that answer gets to keep the Black Card as one Awesome Point. After each round, a new player becomes the Card Czar, and every player draws back up to ten cards.”

The goal is to get X number of Black cards as points also determined by the group/rules you choose. I found it best to keep the black points to roughly 5-6 because the games can last a long time if you have a fucked up or clever group playing.

The team behind Cards Against Humanity have just released the 3rd expansion and I’ve already placed my order. While this is cool and all, what I really want is to hear about the Cards Against Humanity + GiantBomb special expansion collaboration extravaganza. It’s been a while since they announced it and I know Ryan (and Jeff?) was (were?) at the CAH panel at PAX the other night so maybe something was said there; we might not know everything since last I checked it wasn’t recorded, but I’ll keep an eye out.

Mass Effect 3

We’ve already said goodbye to Shepard and the first Mass Effect Trilogy, but the team at Bioware behind the sci-fi RPG series put out some interesting statistics about the decisions made across all ME3 playthroughs in their Mass Effect Retrospective panel at PAX.

Here’s what they showed:

So I’m in the 4% that beat it ME3 on Insanity, the 8% that didn’t cure the genophage, the 36% that saved both the Quarians and Geth, the 3.8% that Shot Mordin (ONLY ONCE! I saved him the other 2 playthroughs); but I’m not even on the list for the squad members because I used Javik every mission in my 2nd playthrough (of 3) which puts him at what? 50% for that playthrough and something like 16% between all of them and I used James + Garrus or Kaiden exclusively on my Insanity playthrough so I’m part of that 1.5% too.

Interesting statistics, funny to see that the decisions I made in almost every playthrough aren’t always the dominant choice made. Hope to see more stuff like this; perhaps the panel will be put up in its entirety at some point here’s the whole hour-long panel!

PAX East 2013 Mass Effect Retrospective Panel

It’s been a while since I’ve done a newsworthy like this, usually only happens after events/expos, but it was nice. The next big show is E3 in June and between now and then I don’t think there are many titles other than Bioshock Infinite, which I’ll be picking up at midnight tonight (but wont be playing til Thursday night cause of school), so I hope to work on some more backlog games/reviews. I’m still sitting on my XCOM:EU stuff and I’ll probably write something for Dragon’s Dogma again and I finished reading a few books I’d like to write something for as soon as I find the time.

Until next time.

Thanks to TotalHalibut, a youtube channel I recommend all (and any) of my readers to check out, I have a video showing off gameplay Supergiant had revealed at PAX East from their new game, Transistor. Supergiant is the development company that brought you 2011′s masterpiece Bastion, one of my favorite games of that year and one of the highest rated indie games of all time. From the gameplay, it seems that Transistor is keeping in with Bastion’s style, incorporating the same isometric camera perspective as well as the melee combat and narrative storytelling stemming from the Transistor, the game’s main weapon as well as supporting character. If it works, don’t fix it right? However, what is different is a new mechanic that allows Red, our new protagonist, to stop time using the Transistor and allow a unique form of turn based combat. This ability seems to be integrated into the game’s combat however, as the player can choose when to activate it, even during combat.

To sum up, it looks good and you should maybe play it when it comes out. I know I will. Probably buy that soundtrack again too.

Transistor is set to release sometime in 2014.

The heart of the circuit is the two transistor flasher with frequency modulation applied to the base of the first transistor. When the pushbutton is depressed, the frequency of oscillation climbs to a peak and when the button is released, the frequency descends due to the rising and falling voltage on the 22 uF capacitor. The rate of change is determined by the capacitor value and the 100k resistor from the pushbutton.  The oscillation eventually stops if the button is not depressed and the current consumption drops to a tiny level so no power switch is needed.

The 0.1 uF determines the pitch of the siren: A 0.047uF will give a higher pitch siren and a 0.001 uF will give an ultrasonic (at least for me, anyway) siren from 15 to 30 kHz which might have an interesting effect on the neighborhood dogs! The 33k resistor from the collector of the PNP to the base of the NPN widens the pulse to the speaker giving greater volume.

The flasher circuit drives a PNP transistor which powers the speaker. This transistor may be a small-signal transistor like the 2N4403 in most applications since it will not dissipate much power thanks to the rapid on-and-off switching. The 100 ohm and 100uF capacitor in series with the speaker limit the current to about 60 mA and they may be replaced with a short circuit for a louder siren as long as the transistor can take the increased current. The prototype drew about 120 mA when shorted which is fine for the 2N4403.

Transistor substitutions should be fine – try just about any small-signal transistors but avoid high frequency types so that you do not end up with unwanted RF oscillations.

This circuit simulates a chime similar to the sound many cars make when the keys are left in the ignition. The bottom two gates form a squarewave audio oscillator that drives the base of the 2N4401, turning it on and off at an audio rate. The top two gates produce a short low-going pulse about once per second that discharges the 10 uF capacitor through the diode. The voltage then jumps up and slowly decays through the 15 k collector resistor when the 2N4401 is conducting. The result is a squarewave on the collector of the 2N4401 that jumps up quickly then decays slowly. The darlington emitter-follower buffers the squarewave and drives a small speaker.  

The tone frequency is set by the 1000 pF capacitor and the cadence of the chime is set by the 0.1 uF capacitor. The 10 uF capacitor determines how quickly the chime dies out and the 3.3 k/3.3 uF soften the attack time of the leading edge of the chime. The volume is set by the 22 ohm resistor and 100 uF bypass capacitor. These values may be experimentally varied to produce the desired sound.

In their tradition of one word titles, the title of their next game is Transistor.  It tells the story of a place called the Cloudbank and how everyone has a voice in it.  However, the most influential of those voices are starting to disappear.  Enter the Protagonist named Red, the next on the list of people to disappear.  Now from the art (by the amazing Jen Zee) seen in the game, it looks like our Protag is a singer.  When she is attacked by a currently unknown Organization with a mysterious weapon known as the Transistor, she eventually will be able to wield, our story begins.  She’ll be chasing after the weapon’s former owners during the course of the story and will unravel the mysteries behind the weapon of unknown origin.

A wallpaper of Supergiant Games’ newest Video Game

Other than a trailer that shows us some of the gameplay mechanics, there sadly isn’t a lot of information available for us to devour.  

Supergiant Games has a lot to live up to though.  Considering the commercial success of Bastion, they need to either deliver the same kind of story or they need to top it.  Let me get it out of the way, I loved playing Bastion.  I was tickled pink when they came out with the No-Sweat mode so someone like me who excels in the art of constantly dying can still enjoy the games’ story to its fullest.  I really, really hope that we’ll be able to full explore the world of Transistor.  Did I mention that this game is being fully developed by the same team that brought us Bastion?  No?  Well then, I just did.

(And if you haven’t played or heard of Bastion, have you been living under a rock?)

When there’s more information about this game, I’ll give an update in another entry.

Jay, out!

No one knows what’s going on in today’s episode. We accidentally talk about heaps of stuff though from the many game announcements of PAX East to the resignation of EA’s John Riccitello. Defiance has finally lifted its NDA so we’re free to talk about all our mutant shooting fun. Plus there’s a new crowd funding site making the rounds!

Grab the episode here or subscribe to us on iTunes

Show notes after the jump.

First Looks
Drop Chord
Dragons Crown
Transistor
Duck Tales Remastered
Parallax
Apotheon
D&D: Chronicles of Mystara
Might & Magic X Legacy
DayLight

News
Console officially gets the best version of Diablo 3, and not Sony Exclusive
Steam Early Access
EA’s CEO resigns
Blizzard announces iOS/PC/Mac CCG Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
StarCraft 2 – Heart of the Swarm sells 1.1 million in two days
TF2 to get Oculus Rift support! (Doom 3 won’t make the dev-kit launch)
Chris Avellone becomes a Torment Stretch goal
Ms. Splosion Man coming to iOS
XCOM coming to iOS
Sony partners with Unity3D
The good walking dead game is coming to Vita
Dust: An Elysian Tale coming to Steam
Starwars The Old Republic has gained 2 million users since going F2P
Zeus and Isaac Clarke joining Playstation All-Stars
Wii-U version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution fixing some major game issues
Bioshock costs $200million? Update – Maybe not
BattleBlock Theatre coming April 3rd
Telltale are throwing a key party
18+ Age restrictions removed from European E-Shop
A new crowdfunding site has entered the fray

Crowd Sourcing
Buddy and me
Guns of Icarus – Adventure Mode
Planet Explorers
The Dark Triad
Soundself
Ostrich Island

What is Moore’s Law and how does it work?

Intel is the world’s largest corporation in the semiconductor industry, it is an American multinational semiconductor chip producer. Moore’s law is named after the Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965, who stated that, “the number of transistors on a chip will double approximately every two years”. The term is not an actual law in any scientific rule, similarly to “the rule of thumb”; however, Intel’s development from Moore’s law has fulfilled the many breakthrough achievements and has made the law widely acceptable.

In 1971, there were about 2,300 transistors with the size of 10 micrometers (10,000 nanometers) on a 12 square millimeters chip; at the moment, the 3^rd generation Intel Corei7 has 1.4 billion transistors with the size of 22 nanometers, on a 160 square millimeters chip. A transistor is the electrical switch of a microprocessor, the gate control in a transistor is a binary switch consists of “0” and “1” (off/on). The amount of transistors connected will indicate the electron current flow within a chip, generally called “power supply of a chip.”

Figure 1: Intel’s future development plan showing a trend in size reduction.

The size reduction of transistors gained the power for computers by allowing more things to be built on a single chip. A chip that has more things built on needs more power; thus, having smaller and more powerful transistors will supply enough power and space. As more things could be built on a chip, it increases the processing power of the CPU by having more processor cores with higher clock frequency and more data cache space. The result is that a processor could think faster on more than one thing at the same time, and could remember more information.

Why wouldn’t Moore’s law work?

The breaking down of Moore’s law has been spotted in 2010 by Michio Kaku, a physicist. He predicted the dead end as “computer power simply cannot maintain its rapid exponential rise using standard silicon technology”. Generally, the idea is that the transistors will be reaching the size that no presence material/technology would allow it to get any smaller.

The Intel Corporation admitted this fact until 2011, when the Intel architecture group designed the solution for this issue. Intel presented the “fueling Moore’s Law” innovation, which is the new design of a processor called “Intel’s tri-gate technology” or the “3D” processor. The transistors have been expanded into a 3-dimention vertical fin shape, allowing transistor size reduction to 5 nanometers within the 2015 timeframe. Even though the number of transistors increases, Moore showed that the cost of transistors decreased with the new manufacturing techniques; nevertheless, he will be able to keep the low cost of production once the technology has reached its limit. Moore’s law could also come to a brick wall if his new inventions are not affordable for computer users.

Figure 2: the demonstration of Intel’s tri-gate technology comparing to the older transistor design.

On the other hand, another argument to the collapse of Moore’s law is that the Nano size tri-gate technology might be a failure. The laws of thermal dynamics and quantum mechanics have set the limitation of how much computer power could be gained from silicon. Heat and electron leakage (energy efficiency) are the main issues of the rapid power increase and the extreme Nano size that silicon could handle. Kaku claimed that Moore’s law could “flatten out completely” by 2022 because sooner or later the silicon transistors will not get any smaller and no more could be squeezed onto a chip, and there needed to be a post-silicon era.

The arguments on both sides were very strongly claimed and cited with reliable resources, experiments and professional credibility. Intel has research teams that are trying to push back the limits of the processor development by the new transistor designs, which are proven by their experiment. On the contrary, Kaku used his professional credibility and scientific laws to disprove the possibility that Intel claimed. His arguments focused on the theoretical properties of silicon and problems that could be caused from overloading the use of silicon.

Follow this blog to see what happens next on the efficiency of Moore’s law!

For more information:                                                                                 http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57526581-76/moores-law-the-rule-that-really-matters-in-tech/                                                                http://techland.time.com/2012/05/01/the-collapse-of-moores-law-physicist-says-its-already-happening/

IBM creates liquid-based transistors that can process data like the human brain

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/21/ibm-creates-liquid-based-transistors-that-can-process-data-like-the-human-brain/#81GImhKB40J6Z3k2.99

I.B.M. Reports Nanotube Chip Breakthrough

I.B.M. ResearchThe face of an I.B.M. research scientist, Hongsik Park, is reflected in a wafer used to make microprocessors.

SAN FRANCISCO — I.B.M. scientists are reporting progress in a chip-making technology that is likely to ensure that the basic digital switch at the heart of modern microchips will continue to shrink for more than a decade.

The advance, first described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology on Sunday, is based on carbon nanotubes — exotic molecules that have long held out promise as an alternative to silicon from which to create the tiny logic gates now used by the billions to create microprocessors and memory chips.

The I.B.M. scientists at the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., have been able to pattern an array of carbon nanotubes on the surface of a silicon wafer and use them to build hybrid chips with more than 10,000 working transistors.

Against all expectations, silicon-based chips have continued to improve in speed and capacity for the last five decades. In recent years, however, there has been growing uncertainty about whether the technology would continue to improve.

A failure to increase performance would inevitably stall a growing array of industries that have fed off the falling cost of computer chips.

Chip makers have routinely doubled the number of transistors that can be etched on the surface of silicon wafers by shrinking the size of the tiny switches that store and route the ones and zeros that are processed by digital computers.

The switches are rapidly approaching dimensions that can be measured in terms of the widths of just a few atoms.

The process known as Moore’s Law was named after Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, who in 1965 noted that the industry was doubling the number of transistors it could build on a single chip at routine intervals of about two years.

To maintain that rate of progress, semiconductor engineers have had to consistently perfect a range of related manufacturing systems and materials that continue to perform at evermore Lilliputian scale.

I.B.M. ResearchVials contain carbon nanotubes that have been suspended in liquid.

The I.B.M. advance is significant, scientists said, because the chip-making industry has not yet found a way forward beyond the next two or three generations of silicon.

“This is terrific. I’m really excited about this,” said Subhasish Mitra, an electrical engineering professor at Stanford who specializes in carbon nanotube materials.

The promise of the new materials is twofold, he said: carbon nanotubes will allow chip makers to build smaller transistors while also probably increasing the speed at which they can be turned on and off.

In recent years, while chip makers have continued to double the number of transistors on chips, their performance, measured as “clock speed,” has largely stalled.

This has required the computer industry to change its designs and begin building more so-called parallel computers. Today, even smartphone microprocessors come with as many as four processors, or “cores,” which are used to break up tasks so they can be processed simultaneously.

I.B.M. scientists say they believe that once they have perfected the use of carbon nanotubes — sometime after the end of this decade — it will be possible to sharply increase the speed of chips while continuing to sharply increase the number of transistors.

This year, I.B.M. researchers published a separate paper describing the speedup made possible by carbon nanotubes.

“These devices outperformed any other switches made from any other material,” said Supratik Guha, director of physical sciences at I.B.M.’s Yorktown Heights research center. “We had suspected this all along, and our device physicists had simulated this, and they showed that we would see a factor of five or more performance improvement over conventional silicon devices.”

Carbon nanotubes are one of three promising technologies engineers hope will be perfected in time to keep the industry on its Moore’s Law pace.
Graphene is another promising material that is being explored, as well as a variant of the standard silicon transistor known as a tunneling field-effect transistor.

Dr. Guha, however, said carbon nanotube materials had more promising performance characteristics and that I.B.M. physicists and chemists had perfected a range of “tricks” to ease the manufacturing process.

Carbon nanotubes are essentially single sheets of carbon rolled into tubes. In the Nature Nanotechnology paper, the I.B.M. researchers described how they were able to place ultrasmall rectangles of the material in regular arrays by placing them in a soapy mixture to make them soluble in water. They used a process they described as “chemical self-assembly” to create patterned arrays in which nanotubes stick in some areas of the surface while leaving other areas untouched.

Perfecting the process will require a more highly purified form of the carbon nanotube material, Dr. Guha said, explaining that less pure forms are metallic and are not good semiconductors.

Dr. Guha said that in the 1940s scientists at Bell Labs had discovered ways to purify germanium, a metal in the carbon group that is chemically similar to silicon, to make the first transistors. He said he was confident that I.B.M. scientists would be able to make 99.99 percent pure carbon nanotubes in the future.

We don’t know too much about Transistor, but based off the trailer it looks like it play similarly to Bastion. Transistor will be shown at PAX East, so hopefully I’ll be able to check it out. In the mean time watch the trailer below, and get excited.

Taken from Eurogamer

Spin transistor… “Graphene goes the distance in spintronics”, Rachel Courtland, IEEE Spectrum Feb 2013. pg 14.

circuit Regulated Power Supply by Transistor (TIP31)
This is simple dc power supply circuit. That use transistor be important equipment perform boost up current give the power goes up. By have the zener diode formed control voltage be stable the character Regulated base. By this circuit can give voltage 9 Volt at 1 Amp, be stable or can fine can decorate 6V to 12V with VR1 control. The Transistor TIP31 should hold with Heat sink, because while work have a high fever. The part BC182 use other number can replace get. The detail is other , see in the circuit sir.

[Lou Prado] sent in a link to his new video on using a Bluetooth headset as a garage door opener for your Android device. This isn’t a new hack, and we’ve actually seen him pull it off once before back in 2011. But we’re running this as an update for a couple of reasons. First off, we had forgotten about the hack and it’s worth revisiting. Secondly, the headset which he used with the initial hack has gone out of production. He chose a new model, and the assembly video (embedded after the break) which he made is a treasure trove of best practices to use when hacking consumer electronics.

Here’s how the hardware part of the hack goes. He removes the speaker from the headset and solders the base of a transistor in-line with a resistor to the red wire. The emitter connects to the grounded frame of the USB charging cable which is plugged into an outlet next to your garage door opener. The collector of the transistor is then connected to the garage door opener, along with a common ground connection, allowing audio from the headset to trigger the transistor to open the door.

The systems is secure based on Bluetooth pairing, which was done with his phone before starting the hardware hack.

The tech giant hasn’t actually built a chip with the new transistor; instead, it has demonstrated a rough circuit. IBM expects the technology to leave the lab within the next five to seven years, and assuming that happens it can actually be produced using the same processes used today.

Why we need a new transistor

The benefit to this fundamental shift is that we can continue to make smaller chips with more processing power and keep to the schedule set by Moore’s Law. That “law” dictates that we double the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months (or two years). However this doubling has pressed the chip industry to the limits — packing those transistors onto small chips is like cramming a bunch of angsty teenagers into a small space.

One might argue that Moore’s Law doesn’t matter, but the ever decreasing cost of computing power is the reason Google is able to deliver its awesome search index for the pennies people pay in search advertising, or why Facebook can spend hundreds of millions on its infrastructure and still not charge you a thing.

A big problem associated with smaller transistors (and more of them) on a chip is leakage — electrons are noisy and they lose a lot of power and heat. This new coating and the use of ions as signals reduces leakage, which means chipmakers can continue placing more of them on the chip and the cost for computing will continue going down.

And that is a good thing.

Naturally, when Supergiant Games announces that it’s making another game, everyone is going to take notice. This week, Supergiant unveiled their next game, Transistor.

According to Supergiant, the game is a sci-fi-themed action RPG. As we’d expect from Supergiant, this game is an isometric action-RPG. Unlike Bastion, which was more of a fantasy RPG (for lack of a better adjective to describe the work the game was set in), Transistor has more of a cyberpunk design theme.

Here’s a brief description of the game from Supergiant:

In Transistor, players assume the role of a young woman who gains control of a powerful weapon after a mysterious group of assailants nearly kills her with it. Now she must fight from street to street against forces that will stop at nothing to recover the weapon. During the course of the adventure, players will piece together the Transistor’s mysteries as they pursue its former owners.

And here’s the announcement trailer:

Since it’s Supergiant making this game, I think the most appropriate thing to say here is “shut up and take my money!”

Transistor is scheduled for release in early 2014.

Source: Supergiant Games

Я не люблю писать про трейлеры (тем более те, которые уже все давно посмотрели), но мимо новой игры Supergiant Games пройти не получается. В нём не особо показан геймплей или объяснена хоть какая-то механика, но тот изумительный и красочный стиль, что виден на кадрах, уже подсознательно подталкивает закидать монитор деньгами. И таки выкроить время, чтобы пройти до конца купленный неизвестно когда Bastion, который уже покрылся тремя слоями пыли в Steam.

И чтобы два раза не вставать. Humble запустил новый вид бандла, в котором новое предложение будет каждую неделю. И первенцем на такую щедрость стал вышеупомянутый Bastion. Причём, даже если игра у Вас уже есть, то при оплате 25$ и выше есть все шансы заполучить CD с саундтреком, цветной платок (бандану) и пару открыток с бесплатной доставкой по всему миру. Я вот подумываю потратиться.

Playable at this weekend’s PAX East expo, this sci-fi action RPG seems to follow the same isometric style as Bastion — as well as featuring Logan Cunningham (the voice of Ruckus) as a voice artist and similar music to that of Bastion‘s phenomenal soundtrack. 

With platforms currently unconfirmed, you play as a woman who gains control over a powerful sword that its former owners will do anything to get back. I’m sure there will be more details on the game soon and I’m personally hoping that the musicians do something like this again. Check below for the game’s trailer.

Source: PCGamer

The developers of the highly successful and acclaimed game Bastion, Supergiant Games, has announced their next project: Transistor. The game is set in a Sci-Fi environment and has a very similar feel and look to Bastion with a brillant soundtrack.

Transistor invites players to wield an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin as they explore a stunning futuristic city. We’re designing our next game to seamlessly integrate thoughtful strategic planning into a fast-paced action experience, complete with our studio’s signature melding of responsive gameplay and rich atmospheric storytelling. All of us from the Bastion development team are working together again on this new project, with the aid of a handful of talented new people who’ve joined us since Bastion’s launch.

In Transistor, players assume the role of a young woman who gains control of a powerful weapon after a mysterious group of assailants nearly kills her with it. Now she must fight from street to street against forces that will stop at nothing to recover the weapon. During the course of the adventure, players will piece together the Transistor’s mysteries as they pursue its former owners.

VR1: 10 K Variable resistor adjusts the fan speed.

R9: This sets the minimum speed. With the 10k pot, a 1k resistor will give 0–100% control which is OK for model motors or lighting, 10k will give around 5v–12v range, more suitable for cooling fans.

C2: This is the timing capacitor, and with the 47k timing resistor R1 and wave amplitude control resistors R2 (22k) & R3 (10k) gives a PWM frequency of around 117Hz according to the formula

Frequency = R2 / (4 x R3 x R1 x C1)

Don’t change R2 or R3, but you can alter R1 and/or C1 if you want to try different frequencies.Fan controller by LM2902

Q1: For load currents up to about 600mA a 2N2222A NPN transistor is recommended. It comes in a TO-18 metal can.

For higher loads go for a darlington power transistor such as the TIP120, 121 or 122, rated to 5A, or a power mosfet. The IRF530 is easy to find, not expensive, and can carry up to 14A. Providing you take the usual precautions for handling CMOS, static electricity is not going to zap it. Most n-channel MOSFETs will do, look for a low RDS and adequate current-handling ability. Both darlingtons and mosfets are in the TO-220 case.

Using the 2N2222A bipolar transistor you might lose 200-400mV from the 12v supply to the fan, double that for one of the darlington types; with the IRF530 I measured the loss at only 40mV with a 200mA fan.

Check the transistor or mosfet pin-outs, base or gate to R9, emitter or source to ground, collector or drain to the fan negative. A heatsink is not necessary at moderate loads.

D1: The diode prevents back-emf from inductive loads such as brushed motors from damaging the switching transistor. With “brushless” computer fan motors it’s not necessary to fit this diode across the load, as they have any needed protection already in-fan.

erminal as a reference. Its voltage gain is determined by the R

HA17741       2SC2240      LM319       74HC574      ECR1220       2N2369

Supergiant Games released a tantalizing teaser for their newest game yesterday. While we don’t know too much about Transistor beyond the delicious trailer, it certainly appears to be a brilliant follow-up to their freshman effort, Bastion.

But something else elbowed its way to the front of my mind as I replayed the trailer nearly a dozen times. Something made me smile…

The protagonist is a GIRL!!

Now wait just a second before you start rolling your eyes at the expectation of an oncoming feminist rant. Trust me, I LOVED The Kid.  But I’m just really happy to see a girl with a giant sword starring in Supergiant’s new game – as if Supergiant’s beautiful work on Bastion didn’t garner enough admiration from me!

Naturally my first instinct was to throw my credit card at the screen. When that didn’t work (I tried a few dozen times but it kept bouncing off) I decided to write something just to get the *SQUEEEE* off my chest. Writing helps me control the *SQUEEE*.

When Bastion was released, I threw the full weight of my mouse cursor at the “Buy” button on Steam and promptly dove into Supergiant’s painterly world. After only playing it for about an hour, I wrote a long email to Supergiant that gushed praise and, to my surprise, I received a kind reply from their writer, Greg Kasavin; which of course made my face do the happy dance. But I didn’t write them for a reply back. It was one of those purely giving moments we experience when something humbles us. I wrote them because Bastion had humbled me.

Bastion was just that singular experience that made me so happy that I had to tell the creators just how happy. I wanted them to know how much Bastion’s magic had moved me, and I wanted them to realize that the creative risks they had decided to take turned into an absolutely wonderful game experience. Between Jen Zee’s eye-popping art, Greg’s tight story-writing, Darren Korb’s immersive and haunting music (not to mention Ashley Barrett’s dreamy vocals), that silky baritone voiceover from Logan Cunningham and all that hidden magic of the programming team; Bastion made me remember why I was a gamer.

As I sit here and pine for Transistor on my pile of forget-me-nots, the knowledge that one of my favorite new developers has taken both a risk and a creative leap to build upon their unique and stunning aesthetic and boldly put a GIRL at the reins of their next story, makes me smile – makes my little gamer heart glow with happy feelings as Supergiant proudly displays that some devs really do know that girls can kick just as much ass as the next guy.

Bastion made me a follower and fan, Supergiant. Transistor just might make me a true believer.

Related articles

• Basti-Onward: Supergiant’s Next Game Is Transistor (rockpapershotgun.com)
• Bastion Creator Reveals Transistor, Offers A Short Trailer (escapistmagazine.com)