Jak 3 till 3.

(tags game, PlayStation 2)

I played Jak 3 until 3 AM last night. It's like a fine wine! This game is smooth! Wait I forgetting it is made up of frustrating-until-easy mini-games and speed quests. I don't care, the PS2 brings me "this is living".

I'm going to play a little bit less tonight because I feel like I didn't get enough sleep. Ugh.

Stop everything! Jak 3!!!!

(tags game, PlayStation 2, Jak, purchase, ECsite)

Oh boy oh boy Jak 3 is here! (^_^)/ I'll be dropping everything for a while ;-)

I thought I had to go to the post office to get it but it was in my mailbox (lets see, Sunday to Thursday night from Hong Kong to Kobe, not bad). I thought it might not start because it was "FOR KOREA ONLY" but it plays on my Japanese PS2 (It says "Printed in Japan", fer crying out loud). I thought there was no English option but I found it! Yes Yes YES!

What is this unfinished Jak 1 game doing in my PS2? (toss) You're gone.

Of course I already started the game... Voice actors are excellent. Daxter is off the wall and Jak is that gritty voice that kills me. Control is excellent, vehicles handle cool, excellent graphics. I'm lovin' it!

I'm about 45 minutes in, doing the race against other monks. What is it about these Jak style minigames that seem so hard in the beginning, and then so easy once you get used to them?

Now about the only thing I need to do right now before getting back into the game is watch the intro (before pressing Start). I wasn't able to watch in English. Maybe I can find it on the official site. No, the other official site, right here. Sweet. Best not get too ahead of myself here, though, there's more movies available here that I've seen in game.

<voice="jak,gritty">Bring 'em on.</voice> It's Jak time.

(edit: second official site link, Jak 1 mention, "handle")

Xbox 360 Elite too Elite for Japan right now

(tags Xbox 360, game, hardware, Japan)

They really don't know how to keep a secret with those Xbox 360 rumors. I read at Joystiq that the "Xbox 360 Elite is official..." but a yen price was suspiciously absent. Checking at Impress Game Watch reveals that it is not yet announced for the Japan region, although the new 120 GB hard drive is confirmed (crazy, 19000 yen!). Does this mean IdolM@ster for me in May?!

I'm interested in getting this version because hopefully Microsoft fixed their hardware QA problems. HDMI video output is interesting but for me it's just a "future-proofing" feature at the moment. Though there's no processor revision, there must be a board revision because of that HDMI.

I suppose I'm not holding out for another Kasumi-flavored Xbox.

Taxi over, Comic Loco beginning

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, completed)

Whoops, I totally finished the My Taxi game, making 1 million yen and what do I get? Bland credits roll that I can only see once. Now that there's no carrot on a stick so I put this game away. Sure I can collect those accessories but they are not that fun. Basically I only used the "orz" license plate, the "bunny ears and tail", and the white paint. Thanks for (only!?!) 9 hours of fun, My Taxi, you make me wanna play the PlayStation 2 versions.

So, what's next? I put in Comic Party Portable (「こみっくパーティーPORTABLE」 ULJS-00027) which I bought mint unopened with the UMD for the first episode of Comic Party Revolution (初回版限定特典), but I couldn't save even after about 30 minutes of reading so I turned it off. I can always just force skip, though, no biggie.

I also put in Loco Roco (「ロコロコ」) which was pretty fun. I spent the first 30 minutes just downloading the backgrounds offered by the official site through the in-game browser, though (no link, sorry).

Ichigo Masimaro Spinning

(tags anime, Ichigo Masimaro)

Ichigo Masimaro (苺ましまろ) comes out with the second OVA. Thumbs up. This one is a little bit more lively (Miu spinning!), but still uses the source material.

So cute. Taken from Matsuri's picture book, Wan Wan Koro Koro.

Finally, Hina Ichigo figure!

(tags figure, Rozen Maiden, kawaii)

Let's just let the pictures tell the story:

Major kawaii! Finally Rozen Maiden's Hina Ichigo becomes a figure! (「ローゼンメイデン ミニドールシリーズ 雛苺」) Coming out 2007/06. Too bad it's not part of the SRDX series. I've got the whole set. Also too bad it's only 11 cm.

Chara-Ani has the order. But I'm just going to wait for a local store to carry it. I don't expect the Moeyo.com to take the otaku-ness pictures, ho hum.

Busy PS2 mail order gaming

(tags game, mail order, PlayStation 2, Jak, Rozen Maiden, anime, kawaii, moe)

The delivery guy was giving me flack for not setting the delivery day and time for my Rozen Maiden Gebetgarten (「ローゼンメイデン ゲベートガルテン」) PlayStation 2 game shipment. Yes I did buy it, despite the fact that its a fighting-in-the-air game riding on its license. But Hina-Ichigo, (>_<) kawaii! Since I like the voice actors, I'm going to buy a second copy at Gamers because it comes with a voice CD and a telephone card. Suckers like me keep the license game model viable.

And I got the message from Play-Asia that my order Korean (NTSC-J) version of Jak 3 is shipping. Oooh. I gotta finish my retro blast with Jak 1 before it gets here. I'm already up to about 82%, but maybe I should just beat the game normally and quit it there.

BTW, I got into the Jak mood a couple of weeks back because of Insert Credit IRC. One guy on the channel received an official Jak cut-scene video DVD as a gift. I was begging him to give/sell it to me but he said no. I even got a clue on a Ebay sell on the same item from another IC IRCer but I forgot to bid! Dumb, I am. I figure I'm too cheep to buy me a NTSC-US PS2 console but I will spend 7000 yen on the Korean version. Hopefully it will have the English. If not... doh!

Finally, I ordered that Manabi Straight (「まなびストレート！キラキラHappy Festa!」) PlayStation 2 game from Chara-Ani and it will be coming this week. I bet you that delivery guy is going to tell me to set the day and time again. Anyways, moe, loli, whatever you want to call it. But this seems like a good addition to the anime, which in fact I haven't been watching in real time (it's on pause on the third episode). Voice actors are the killer.

Saving up for one million yen in The My Taxi

(tags game, PlayStation Portable)

In The My Taxi game, my taxi's handling, top speed, acceleration are all maxed out, but I only know that because the boss told me about it. There are no status indicators. The whine of the engine is really annoying so I turned down the SFX volume. It is the 31th (in-game) day.

Now the boss told me that I should make a million yen (100万円, 100_0000). Given that I can make an (guesstimate) average of 3_2000 yen a day, and starting from 73_0000 yen, it should only take me about 9 more in-game days. However, I thought for some reason that I had to make an equivalent of a million US dollars (1億円, 1_0000_0000). I feel like that old dog that can't learn new tricks, you know like 5.00 USD for strawberries?! Anyway, given that amount, it would 3102 in-game days, which sounds unrealistic. One in-game day is typically 15 minutes real-time, which would then mean about 775 real-time hours! No thanks!

BTW, the PlayStation 2 follow up of the original game, The Taxi 2, asks you to make a million, 3 million, or more. 3 million would take 23 real-time hours. More would take...

PSP the way you want it

(tags video, MMFlash, hacking, failure)

As a Sony product, the PlayStation Portable is locked up. UMD, Memory Stick, Location Free, PS1 emulation. As an owner of many Sony products, I suppose I am used to it.

Take for instance, videos. Any video such as UMD or online from P-TV or Google Video or free official stuff like the Content Pack can be played at full screen. However, videos that you convert yourself are limited to 320 by 240 (update: Firmware 3.30 now allows native PSP resolution!?). You could convert it to Motion-JPEG, but the resulting file size is really a non-starter. So much for converting 16:9 videos to the PSP. Unofficially, there's a hack firmware that enables the playback, but you will need to jump through a lot of "hacking" hoops to be able to use it.

On a related tip, I wanted to watch that crazy Touhou-related music video "Marisa wa taihen na mono wo nusunde ikimashita" (「魔理沙は大変なものを盗んでいきました」) on my PSP. (Yes I bought the CD). The PSP does support Macromedia Flash. Basically you just need to copy it to your Memory Stick, then point your Web Browser to "file:/my/flash/is/here/in/this/folder.swf" and it will play. Except that for this particular video, there was an Out of Memory error, so it didn't play.

And yes, I let a good thing slip through my hands. There was an old copy of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories sitting at the store on Friday, but I was unsure. I double-checked the Internet. It's not a game, it's the (only!) key to hacking a later version PSP. I went back to buy it, but... no picture here means I couldn't. Well at least I saw with my own eyes, because all the other versions of this game that I've seen in the Japan stores are the patched ("Greatest Hits") versions. One thing that worries me is if the Japanese version is already patched. But for now, I just gotta keep a lookout again, instead of resigning to Internet auctioning.

Finally, I bought this mook 「ＰＳＰ裏ｐｅｒｆｅｃｔ」 (ISBN 9784861902130, picture above). It reminds me of the time I bought a mook for copying DVDs to my iPod. It has all the software and knowledge you would have to scour the Internet to get started with unlocking your PSP's potential. Now I am armed with a clue.

Yeah, but my current PSP? I'm reading George Orwell's 1984 on it. So potential-less.

(edit: Google Video is not full screen)

(edit 2: Video size increased in Firmware 3.30?)

Simple 2500 Series Portable!! Vol. 9 The My Taxi

(tags game, PlayStation Portable)

On that Spring Equinox day (again), I was buying some PSP accessories like a charging stand (but no power cord) and another charge cable by USB (but no data link) at the store when I spotted a game for the PSP version of the Simple Series. It's called The My Taxi (Simple 2500 Series Portable!!! Vol. 9「ＴＨＥマイ・タクシー」 ULJS-00096) made by Tamsoft. I like taxi games, heck I remember playing that taxi game in GTA 3 for 100 customers, and Crazy Taxi on the Gamecube was crazy fun. There's just something about spatial games that appeals to me. Before buying though, I figured there had to be a game like this on the PS2. Indeed, there was two actually. Originally The Taxi (Simple 2000 Vol. 48「THE タクシー～運転手は君だ～」 SLPM-62483), there was a recent sequel The Taxi 2 (Series 2000 Vol. 109「THE タクシー２～運転手はやっぱり君だ！～」 SLPS-20478). I figure this is proof that the first game was fun enough, so I bought the PSP game at shop later in the day.

My advice to you: never play a Simple Series game after playing a platform's A-List game. After playing the godlike Daxter, this PS2-to-PSP port was a shock. I was expecting graphical prowess or even competence, but Simple Series game is barely passing. Pop up galore. Tekken backgrounds (background not rotating lock-step with foreground). In a game like this, visual clues are very important. I want to see buildings in the distance, so it will help build my mental map. In other spots AI on the cars are very dumb and cars bump each other without a care. I suspect I could crash into other cars without any damage to my car and without too much damage to my in-game reputation. There are no traffic lights and I can drive American on these Japanese streets. Ha.

However, gameplay itself isn't bad. In fact, it's downright fun. It is like any 3d driving game, except slower and less manuverable. The brake seems too strong, and acceleration isn't so great, but maybe I'll get better parts. Traffic doesn't get it the way too much. You can't drift your car at all, though. Turning is sometimes a hassle.

Customers tell you where they want to go, but I haven't lived in this city long enough, so I don't know the sights. Luckily, there are dynamic arrows ala Crazy Taxi that show me how to get there. I can't turn them off.

Ah, the load times. Loading the world map is the only seriously long one, at about 15 seconds, but during driving, there's no loading. Great. But there's loading between different areas. I thought I would get annoyed by the 10 second load, but actually, the only reason I would cross a boundary is if I had a customer telling me to go somewhere. The load time gives me time think about how to get there.

You can tell this is a port from a 4:3 system because of the borders during cut-scenes and menus. Also some close pop up happens where the 16:9 and 4:3 border areas are. Annoying but ignorable.

And the menus, why are the menus so idiotically designed? I don't want to watch the intro to the game every time I press Start. And why are not-yet unlocked parts already visible? It makes it hard to find the stuff that I do have.

There are some parts that are totally wacky. You get a money bonus that is many times the actual cab fare. Say for example you had a 2000 yen fare, then if you complete the mission then you could get +10000 yen. Who is paying that? Next, the physics here is so laughable. There are no jumps! If you fall off a ledge, there's no fall animation, you just magically appear at the bottom! And some missions are truly annoying. One is that you drive a customer but you are unable to turn left (you can turn right). Truly WTF. Pro-tip: put the car in reverse if you want to turn the forbidden way. I want to avoid any customers that make my taxi less manueverable, but you can't tell them apart until they enter. And the cosmetic customization of the car is pretty funny. I got a "orz" license plate and a king's crown.

I forgot to add these wacky things: this young customer (above) flagged down my taxi, then wanted me to drive to the pachinko parlor. Upon arrival, she hands me the 2000 yen cab fare and a 8000 yen tip/bonus. Okay, okay, customer perogative. Some grannys insist that you use your nitro because they want to feel the acceleration. Other people tell you to drive without using your stock of nitros. Come on, what is it to you? Another kind of mission is where you can't release your foot from the acceleration pedal. How do you stop? You could ram objects but that doesn't stop you completely.

I've already spent 6 hours on this game, and my taxi's performance is upgraded. I am making bank, up to 40000 yen a session. I don't think I want to restart Monster Hunter Portable since this more action-packed game is here. Hahah.

Speaking of spatial games, wouldn't it be great to have a 3d taxi game? Say you're a taxi "runner" for a space colony in low grav. No I'm not talking about idealistic futures like Star Trek. More like, like that Robert Heinlein 1957 short story "The Menace from Earth" (available free to read, look I am linking to something that is 50 years old). Open space would be a luxury in a space colony so things would be packed. You would be able to swing from pipes or fly. Imagine guiding people and packages around, through shortcuts between buildings. Would there even be buildings? I'm sure if a colony thrived through a couple of generations building codes would become chaotic. Would a taxi game in this environment be more playable with mouse and keyboard, or console pad, or even a flight joystick?

My first hour with Monster Hunter Portable

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, action, console RPG, failure)

When I was at the Nipponbashi Street Festa, I stopped at McDonalds for a bite. I've noticed before that there are always some young guys playing with their PSPs here. From afar the game on their PSPs looked like a dungeon crawling game what with dull greys and browns, but I finally understood it was Monster Hunter Portable. That day was no different, what after hearing that Monster Hunter Portable 2 breaking a million sales. There was not a DS in sight, multiple gangs of young toughs, squinting in hard plastic seats, running around with reptiles.

I had to figure out if this game was any good, so I considered buying MHP2. I even picked up the pamphlet about MHP2. But luckily the first game, MHP, was discounted used at around 1680 yen, so I took a dip.

After heading back home, I lazily put in the game. The FMV looked familiar. I built a character. Yup, I'm going to run around as a lady warrior, ha. Zettai ryouiki! But I assume later that I will be wearing a lot of armor. Costume Get would be proud with time I spent fussing with the hair color and style. Sadly that was the only high point to my hour. The rest just went down hill from there.

In the game, I talked to some NPCs and hurriedly went for a "quest". It was the first one of about four, the one with 1 star. I don't know if 1 star out of 5 means that its really easy or its hard, and I was confused because the default selection was on the 4 star one. Hm. Anyway it can't be too bad.

Thus begins the loading. I am blown away by the graphics, or at least there's no Tekken background effect. There's a bunch of monsters but I don't know if I'm supposed to kill them or not. They look so peaceful so I leave them be.

So I go on to another area. But then the loading really begins. I supposed I have been spoiled by Daxter and Jak series stuff, but I hate cut-scene loading now. And the loading has led me to my first hostile encounter. Whoa. Half my life is gone! I run away!

The map is showing subareas with numbers on them. Do I follow them in order? I have no clue, but I start doing it anyway. I wonder if its a way for local multiplayer (infrastructure?) players to call out where they are on the map.

How do I fight? Oh at least its not a select action cRPG.

I go back to the peaceful monsters and start hacking away. One falls over. What do I do with dead bodies? Carve 'em up with your hunting knife, R1 + Circle when weapon sheathed.

I fell down a ledge and I can't get up. How do I get to the higher ledge? Oh, R1 + Circle when weapon sheathed. Okay, the map is not directed-acyclic anymore.

I am mashing buttons. Uh. How do I pick up the meat I just dropped? No idea. Why is my character clutching her gut? "Elf needs food badly", but how I do I eat?

With about 40 minutes in but no clue how to "win", I switched the game off. I didn't even bother saving this level. I figured I must have missed something back at the village, or maybe I didn't talk to the right NPC.

I spend a day away from it, then I manage to read some point-score reviews. Meh, this game is "addictive" but "boring". If I need to spend 5 hours to get into it, I better start during the weekend. Or maybe I should just quit now.

can't even watch a video demo for a next-gen video game

(tags game, PlayStation 3, video, obsolete)

I was hoping to watch "Ninja Gaiden Sigma 'Battle' montage HD" demo video (thanks Kotaku, Game Videos), which is an upcoming PlayStation 3 port of the 2003 Xbox game, but the 1280x720, 266MB Quicktime download crashed my browser. Maybe these "next-gen" consoles are way better than my current PC, sniff.

chicks and cars, anime-style

(tags shopping, anime, cosplay, Osaka)

I enjoyed the first day of Spring, or at least the afternoon, in Nipponbashi. The main street was closed off to car traffic (歩行者天国歩道) and there was user-created and commercial cosplay afoot. I can't wait until Senaka:ota-road (せなか：オタロードBlog) updates (NSFW) with loads of pictures. And I hope it's not of anime-painted cars, ugh.

Update: It seems this thing is called the 3rd annual Nipponbashi Street Festa (日本橋ストリートフェスタ). But what you want to look at is the normal otaku report complete with pictures. They may as well call it "Car Festa", too, sheesh.

(edit: corrected Japanese)

Candy rationing

(tags sweets, candy, import)

I still like American candy. Import shops carry some down class level candy like the ones shown here. Why isn't there a proper equivalent to "Peppermint Patties" or "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" here in Japan?

Because I went crazy by over-eating my last batch of chocolate, I'm rationing this bunch of "Hershey's Kisses: Chocolate Mint" and "Peter Paul Mounds". I leave the full bags at home, and put only 5 Kisses and 1 Mounds in my work bag per day. Call it a candy bento.

The "Dr. Pepper"? One long chug and my 200 yen is gone.

TrueCrypt now works on my iPod

(tags security, cryptography, open-source, Windows, storage)

Slashdot told me about the newest version of TrueCrypt, 4.3.0. I tried it out, and the problem that was a stumbling block for me, "cannot retain writes in TC container on ipod (78GB FAT32)" seems to be resolved. Now to actually use encryption. It's on my list of things to achieve in Windows like limited user account (LUA), etc.

At work, because of new privacy laws and regulations like J-SOX, we are handling private user data very seriously. For example, they have given me a USB memory device when sneakernetting. It is made by Buffalo, which also provides a TrueCrypt-like free software called "Secure Lock Ware". Of course it only works with Buffalo stuff and it doesn't encrypt your hard drive and it's not open source, so there really isn't much advantage. Secure Lock Ware and TrueCrypt are not vetted at work so I'm not suppose to use them. We do have vetted encryption software, but the interface is a PITA and it doesn't seem to as much as TrueCrypt. Yes, I know, on the company dime and on company equipment it is the company rules. It just seems that Not Invented Here syndrome is in full force.

And you call yourself a Star Trek fan...

(tags DVD region 2, Star Trek, animation)

I totally missed the Japanese DVD region release of the Star Trek The Animated Series (まんが宇宙大作戦). According to the Amazon page, it was released 3 months ago, but I just saw it today at Sofmap Saurus Nipponbashi. The fan page "STFan.com" has more details.

Well I'm not a true Star Trek fan, because I didn't buy the Enterprise series when they came out, and I knew that was coming.

edit: removed the unrelated Nipponbashi Street Festa paragraph

No more Blogger-based exported blog with Windows Live Writer?

(tags blog, writing, Windows, software, failure)

I don't know why, but Windows Live Writer doesn't update directly to my Blogger-based exported blog, "we get signal" (this blog). Maybe its because Blogger went out of beta and they have a new API. I don't think its Live Writer's fault.

That's why my recent posts are picture-less. It's kinda of a hassle to use the Blogger default in-browser editor. Sure I could copy-and-paste from Live Writer, but I lose the convenience (plus it would be the same as I previously did with Nvu or Mozilla or Emacs).

Perhaps I should just upgrade to the "new Blogger" (its out of "beta", w00t?) and then maybe Live Writer will work? First I need to make a backup, though. I should just create another google account and start a new blog and see if it works at all.

edit: I figured out that if I initially add the paragraph tags, the in-browser Blogger editor inserts them automatically, which is the way I like it.

Jak and Daxter in English: The search for cheat code

(tags game, PlayStation 2, cheat-code, multi-language, English, Japanese)

So I started Jak and Daxter again. But I spent a long time trying to find the cheat code that changes the language from Japanese to English (or Spanish or French or Italian). A really long time because of spam sites doing "game cheats". I should have known better, since this is a Japan region game, but I got better results when searching in Japanese. I remember that Weekly Famitsu published this cheat, but I can't find this magazine from the end of 2001. Oh my, this game is more than 5 years old.

So here is the cheat code for changing languages (thanks Urawaza no Yakata 裏技の館):
At the title screen, press and hold L3, while pressing L1, R1, L1, R1, Triangle, Circle, X, Square in succession. A chime should sound. Let go of the L3, then press and hold L3, L2, and R2 at the same time, then press Start. Let go of all buttons. Then navigate to the Options, Game Options and you should see an additional option for language.

I started playing this game in 16:9 screen format and it doesn't look bad. I don't know which I prefer, 4:3 or 16:9, but I am glad this game has the option. I bet this game would look pretty killer (as a 2001 PS2 game) on emulation using a PS3. Jak 2 supported Progressive output, maybe Jak 1 supports the same.

I love how visually fluid this game is. The camera can be swung around at a dizzing clip. Double jumping feels very good. Jak moves so much more freely than Daxter on the PSP. Plus Jak can swim and Daxter can't. Ha ha.

I thought that "Keira"'s voice actor sounded like the person who did "Gadget" on Disney's Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers cartoon series (1989), but according to the Wikipedia, they are different people. The Japanese version voice actor is Kyoko Hikami (氷上恭子) who I know as "Hikaru Usada/Rabi En Rose" in the Di ji Charat universe.

Now that my PS2 is warmed up, maybe I should play a different game... Okami? Maybe there's a language change option on this one. I kid I kid.

Honeymoon is over: Daxter finished at 88%

(tags game, PSP, Jak & Daxter)

I completed the Daxter game all by myself at around 80%. What an excellent ride. This game was irritatingly challenging with some parts, yes but it was easy. Yes I love trying to collect all the "precursor" orbs and I love how it really felt like a PS2 game. The colors were vibrant, the sound and voice were just excellent. Perhaps its a bit on the mature side because of the sexual innuendo and "Dude!" jokes but I'm a snickering schoolboy at heart.

I didn't bother with the mini-games at the beginning, even though they unlocked some different moves. But I kept at them (which will make you unconsciously proficient with the square, cross, triangle and circle buttons if you don't know them already), enough to pass them barely and get the bronze prize. Those mini-games really piss me off... but the presentation was top notch. Action movie parody-themed mini games. Who knew a ottsel looked good in a trenchcoat?

I didn't like the controls because they were too finicky, but then again, when was the last time you rode a flamethrower? I felt the camera movement with the shoulder buttons was obtuse, but it became second nature to me. "Double jumping" is in.

So, I finished trying to find the rest of the "precursor" orbs using help from the GameFAQs. I even found a secret that wasn't over there, ha. Still, that only got me up to 88%. And there I call it quits, because I finished the main game, with all the visible stats at max. I really don't think those mini-games are any fun. I loved the experience of Daxter so much I even plan to dig out my old Jak and Daxter PS2 game to try out a level or two. Crazy. I suppose all that is left is to listen to the development postmortem by Didier Malenfant available form GDCRadio (Game Developer Conference 2006 podcasting).

So what of the PSP? Will I going back to Wipeout Pure (it's an on-again, off-again type of relationship)? Or Princess Maker 4? Or Loco Roco? We'll see.

PSP reasons

(tags game, PSP, purchase)

Why did I decide to join 2005 and get a PlayStation Portable? Over at the #insertcredit IRC channel, "somari" told me that Daxter was available for the PSP. Since I am a Jak and Daxter fan, and I read "glowing" reviews on the Internet, I decided to take the plunge. I am of course, a year behind on this game, as well. Besides, the "champagne gold" is something that doesn't kill my macho edge too bad, as opposed to "pink".

So how does it feel after about one week? I played WipeOut Pure almost non stop, watched a bit of the movies (oh yeah I collected the rest of the Matrix Trilogy on UMD, no extras or omake, bah). I disciplined myself not to open my Loco Roco or Star Soldier. Then my Daxter order from that Akihabara-based Game Hollywood came in (1400 yen shipping, within the country! not cheep!), and I couldn't put that down. That game is gorgeous and there's even a autumn colored level, very sweet.

Then again, I'm still playing Sudoku for the DS on my commutes, and given up carrying the PSP all the time. It's too bulky. DS vs PSP? It's fun to polarize the arguments, but the true fun is to get both systems. With that said, I feel like I didn't miss too much going with DS first.

The Internets are abuzz with the PSP "2" rumors, and it's being denied, confirmed, and denied again. I would feel much better with it being denied right now, having just bought the system, but shrinking the PSP a bit more would be welcome. I haven't realized how much it was like an unwieldly soap bar when you're not entranced by the screen size.

I have been trying to tune into what other games are available on the PSP. I checked out PSP Fanboy, tried to look on the PSP web browser at the official Sony sites, etc.

The currently animated Kanon had a game port release recently, and it sold out everywhere I went (but I wasn't looking for it at the time). One thing good about this game port is that the main guy character is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (杉田智和) who also voices the current anime (but I'm not watching it right now) and that actually has become a deal breaker for me. Other games in that genre that I want to try is Comic Party (goshdarnit just play your DC and PC copy already!). And I can't forget about the first PSP game I bought, har har.

I am also had the idea of collecting all the shmups on the platform. I already started with Sengoku Cannon Sengoku Ace Episode 3 (戦国キャノン) which seems to be at every shop in volumes, so it must not be good. As I said before, I picked up Star Soldier, looking forward to tate PSP, ha. Konami's Paradious, Gradius, and two more which I forget the names are also on the radar, but I never did totally groove on this fight. You know what would be totally rocking is a port of RayStorm series, but sheesh this game I've played at the AC, on the PS1, and even on my PC. I should let that go.

I even thought of jumping on the Monster Hunter series to see what the fuss is about, but I already experienced what it brings in countless other collect-'em-ups, I think. Besides, I don't really like hunting monsters, come to think of it. RPGs, wanna play them... OMG Final Fantasy 1 is coming!!!!, haahah. Yeah right.

PSP is great, even though it's in its waning years and you can see it in the movie selections at the shops and the game release schedules. But it brings gaming fun, and that's what counts.

Soundtrack comeback: Silhouette Mirage

(tags music, game, OST, Treasure)

I still haven't played Silhouette Mirage (PS1, SS) but the announcement of the soundtrack re-release on CD caught my eye (thanks Akibablog). The cover is not the same as the original. It will be in stores 3/21, and Amazon seems to have the (big) album cover too. What is this "Premiere Revival Series" and what is coming next? Oh Treasure, please be releasing.

On a strange tip, why is Masami Nakatsukasa (中司雅美) on the same page as Treasure? It turns out she did a vocal song for the Silhouette Mirage soundtrack. I remember her as the gal who sang the To Heart (PS1) opening and ending songs, and I was hoping she would release more work. I liked most of her full album.

Maison Ikkoku comeback

(tags anime, live-action, Maison Ikkoku)

This doesn't seem to be new news, but its new to me. Maison Ikkoku (めそん一刻), my favorite  manga and anime from the 80s by Rumiko Takahashi (高橋留美子), will be remaked into a live-action TV series this 2007 spring, with tall model-actress Misaki Ito (伊東美咲) headlining.

I only learned about this at the bookstore when trying to find the (sold-out!) Kimikiss manga (キミキス). The announcement seemed to be late last year, though. As this blog shows, Maison Ikkoku explores the fun from the mixing "public" and "private" space. In fact, the 80s style public phone used as a convenient plot device brings the main characters together. Unfortunately that will not translate well to our 2000s mobile phone life, but perhaps there will be some interesting turns.

Almost Wipe'd out: Wipeout Pure downloads

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, race, add-on, download, free)

Wipeout Pure looks totally awesome on this PSP. I actually bought another copy just in case I ever meet another PSP person and we want to battle. (I'm not sure about sending demos to other people, though I read that it was possible in the European version.)

I checked up the Wipeout Pure downloads (also called expansion packs), which seemed to have breathed a bit of life into this 2005 game. Unfortunately, the official site (JP) stopped the free downloads late last year! Oh noes! Sony again with the money scheming! Or stupid me not following this game! I thought this would be one of my first PSP "remorsal" .

I started a frantic Internet search that included the Wikipedia listing "Wipeout Pure expansion packs", an English report on the end of downloads, and the fan hosted US and European packs. Nothing for the Japanese version until I started searching in Japanese of course. Which led me to an extremely complete Wipeout series fan site called WIPEOUT Promotion Committee (WIPEOUT 推進委員会 - ワイプアウト専門情報サイト -). All of the expansion packs, even the rare one-time only downloads are available here (Coca Cola, Continue Magazine, Wire05 event). Excellent stuff! The blog there also seems to track race (commercial or doujin) games as well.

I will dip into these extras as soon as I hit a wall with the current tracks. But I can't resist changing the skin from "Hacker" (white on black). I like more color.

Now joining 2005: PlayStation Portable

(tags game, hardware, Sony, PlayStation Portable, purchase)

I bought a PSP. No updates to this blog for a while. (^_^)

Just a note. The PSP screen is 480 by 272 pixels (16:9). Remember this ratio and screen size FTW.

Backgrounds are beautiful, but the menu display seems to overlay right on top of the interesting part of the picture. If I didn't remove the Memory Stick Pro Duo, then Arin's face would be covered by white text and would not be visible.

I bought Wipeout Pure and LocoRoco, both for around 2000 yen. I also bought 3 PSP movies, Matrix, Shawshank Redemption, 8 Mile. I already had a 512 MB Memory Stick Pro Duo so I have some space. And it appears to be firmware 3.10, but I'm not going to dabble into emulation just yet.

I'm pretty satisfied with the PSP. It's a slick package with pretty mature capabilities, browsing, photo/music/video, game play.

Why did I buy it now? I think I like the case color "Champagne Gold" over black, white, pink, blue and silver, haha.

Vista for the backgrounds

(tags Windows Vista, picture, wallpaper, background, photo-expose, free)

My take on Vista? Well I haven't even tried it yet, but talking with Mr. Alvin who is going full bore on Windows Vista x64, drivers and games are annoyingly problematic, but he's already hit a sweet spot or readjusted his tolerance level, one of the two. I want to try all the nice "little things" like the type to find Start menu, the Services For Unix 6.0 (nee Interix), new command line utilities, real symbolic links, and ... is there more? I don't know. (Get a clue with "Features new to Windows Vista" and "Technical features new to Windows Vista" at Wikipedia. Heh, a new Japanese font "Meiryo".)

That PowerShell (nee Monad) scripting environment isn't standard in Vista, which is really a pity. The reactions to Windows XP seem to generate more discussion about userland tools that bring XP part of the way to Vista, like Launchy or AutoHotKey, etc. As always, I'm keeping my eye on Download Squad and Lifehacker.

The "annoying" UAC serves as a reminder to me to start trying Limited User Accounts in Windows XP, but why do it at all? I'm behind a NAT, I keep that Windows XP firewall on. I still haven't gotten a virus as far as I know (based on my anti-virus software). I am more for convenience than security.

One thing I didn't expect to get much airtime was the new wallpapers or background pictures in Vista. Is this why OS keep on getting bigger? I like background pictures. I don't show icons on my desktop. I even bought a CD-ROM filled with Japan in Autumn season pictures. I was intrigued by the beautiful pictures in Windows Vista. In any case, the whole point of this post was to link to photographer Hamad Darwish's rejected Windows Vista Wallpapers. Even though these pictures didn't make the cut, they still are beautiful to me. I must be a sucker for gradient color changes.