Where's Duke Nukem 3D?

(tags game, Xbox, Xbox Live, FPS, DLC, failure)

I was anticipating at least playing the demo of Duke Nukem 3D for the Xbox Live Arcade. But it's not available from a Japan-based account? Argh? Anyway I don't have this game, but I played it at a friend's house oh so long ago.

Two days ago I tried out (again) Doom for the Xbox Live Arcade (JP version). Um, I have this game on PC somewhere. I swear I even have the GameBoy Advance version too. Come on, not worth the (oh it's on sale?) 400 points.

No longer a game PC: Touhou Chireiden

(tags game, Windows, shmup, Touhou, failure)

So I got my copy of the latest Zun / Shanghai Alice "Touhou" series shmup, 東方地霊殿　～ Subterranean Animism (Touhou Chireiden: Subterranean Animism). A fresh store copy, not a copy from Comic Market 74 a month ago. Install and play. Or try to and fail, because my pad does not work. I try a bunch of stuff, including downloading the latest DirectX, but I finally fix it by making the pad the preferred device "for use with older programs". Oh.

I get my ass handed to me on level 2, normal. No stick control. I'm a gonna turn in.

Fanboy Square-Enix, Hate

(tags game, Final Fantasy, failure, Xbox 360, Japan)

The big gaming news this week for me was Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360. What a coup! As a gamer who doesn't have a PlayStation 3 yet, I feel pretty happy about spending tens of hours leveling up on my Xbox (with Achievements mmmh).

Unfortunately, the current word is that only North America and Europe will be getting it. WTF. For Japan, FF XIII will be PS3 only. WTF WTF. If there's an Asian version (usually Chinese market), I'm going to buy it with the quickness. But probably this one game will be region locked hard. A friend of mine speculated it will be brought over as an "International Version". Sounds likely, but aren't those versions released 1 year later after the original installment?

This is why I hate... who to hate? Square Enix, who's hands are probably tied behind their back because of a Sony contract?? Well I want to hate on Sony, but SE is the one that has to deal with Sony, so its their fault as well. Who cares, the Xbox 360 version has probably just started development. I bet you it will be released late 2009.

As an aside, I have no idea how the game is supposed to play, but if there's no Gambit "programming" system, I'm not going to jump on it on opening day.

Just a reminder to blog about gaming: Space Invaders Extreme, etc

(tags failure, game, Xbox 360, Dual Screen, Wii)

Just a reminder to myself:

Write about finding a pink paddle controller for playing Space Invaders Extreme, and explain how SIE rocks as soon as I get used to the paddle.

Write about Happy Dance Collection for the Wii and how I finally have a reason to buy it. Oh wait, I collected my third Wii game, Elebits, for el cheapo yesterday.

Write about my giving up on Monster Hunter 2nd when I couldn't complete a training mission.

Write about my Shin Sangoku Musou level up-ing with just the female character and giving that up when it doesn't unlock the other hidden female characters.

Yellow fading Rubik's Cube

(tags Rubik's Cube, failure)
(Originally written 2008-06-24 23:40)

Speaking of my (main) Rubik's Cube, the yellow stickers are finally losing their color and are turning white. This is after 10 months of use. Well all of the stickers look grimy and ugly. However, the critical yellow-blue facelet though looks like white-blue, which is impossible. Still it annoys me how dependant I am on looking at the colors of the cube when moving pieces.

So I tore off the yellow sticker. 8 yellow fading stickers remain, and a disconcerting black spot. This is annoying as well.

So why don't I just replace those stickers? Um... yeah. I'm just lazy. I can't get the sticker grime off satisfactorily.

I am annoyed. I'm annoyed with the fade, now I'm annoyed with the black, I'm annoyed with my lack of volition, lack of skills, I'm annoyed enough to write a post. What will it take to resticker my cube?!?! ;-o

I can always start using my second cube. But I have to lube it first. I am annoyed. Huh.

Update to the present: I broke down and restickered my cube. Well only three faces because it takes so long. (WTF only 10 minutes per face) And the stickers don't line up so good. I am annoyed. Yet, the stickers feel pretty good and clean. I would snap a picture but ...

Java kills my (portable?) firefox and sniping ops

(tags browser, failure)

Um, the little Java applet at my Rubik's Cube revival blog post that doesn't really load is killing my Firefox 3.0 RC2 every time I try to close that window. Ugh? I almost missed an auction sniping maneuver because of this. I didn't even try to enter that auction, by the way. What fool would step in between two dueling giants, up-bidding by units of 10000 yens? Sheesh. I'm just bitter that's another telephone card I missed.

Perhaps its because Java is not properly installed in this Portable Apps version. I am going to try I tried text file surgery on sessionstore.js, which I think has the data of all the active tabs (I had 40+ tabs open). It's an ugly, line-break-less text file that is probably Javascript. And now my browser works again. Hip hop hurray. Just in time to lose another auction, ugh.

So much for life goals: Ikaruga on XBLA

(tags game, shmup, Xbox 360, Ikaruga, failure)

Ikaruga on XBLA. Life is still the same as it was before, that is to say I still suck and I still don't play it. What am I aiming at? My Xbox Dashboard is still Ikaruga-themed, though. And I still scope the Ikaruga goods. I got a Ikaruga poster in the last couple of months which is the black on grey design that is the cover of the Gamecube US release. Too bad its just the Dreamcast version and not the Arcade (Naomi!) version. One online auction of the latter recently closed at around 8000 yen, whoa.

I've been sitting on these browser tabs for long enough:

Kotaku reported back in 2008-04-16 that "Top Rated Ikaruga Player [claims] 'XBLA Version is Horrible'". Well horrible for those experts with discerning senses but for dillantantes like me, I would never know the difference. The details are at Kingoro58k's blog, but the highlights are the list of changes, the EASY-C4-BOSS2 differences between DC and XBLA, the C3part1 homing bomb differences, and a clarification on "this is Ikaruga LOL".

And finally related to this shmuppin' on Xbox 360 is the news that Hori is coming out with a Real Arcade Pro . EX (joystick) for the Xbox 360. I don't use my DoA one for anything, so I won't buy this one. One Xbox friend will though, so I can at least scope it out. Perhaps he'll use it on his Windows machines, using these unofficial Xbox 360 controller drivers by Morii.

i can haz boost?

(tags game, Burnout, Xbox 360, failure)

I completed the Burnout Paradise at 100%, after finishing the boring Showtime, but its still not over yet. I know that there is one more thing that will give me the completely complete 101%. So I've been knocking on the known Achivements. One of them is to get a 20x boost run. 20x FSCKIN boost run. I can barely get 6x. I'm sorely tempted to look for the cheatin' knowledge but there are a couple of things I can try and some roads to master before I hit a Internet Search Engine.

It's okay to buy, PAL? Grand Theft Auto IV

(tags game, Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto, shmup, purchase, failure)

Today I ran out of stockpiled food so I headed out. I walked all the way to Kobe Mosaic/Harborland and now my feet and calves hurt. I intended to break in these new shoes but perhaps this was a little extreme.

So I wasn't expecting Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 to be at the store, but there it was for 6000 yen. 20 plus copies. Yea Sofmap. Yea Kobe Sofmap. They almost never have foreign games at this location. Well, ok, they have Postal, sitting there looking unwanted.

Except it had the PAL designation! I wasn't sure that I could use a PAL game on my NTSC-J system, since PAL always meant PAL-only, or so I thought. So I left without it. Rather, I am committed to playing Vice City and San Andreas before this, ok ok ok ok. Acutally, there was Dark Sector for 4000 yen and also Raiden Fighters for 4000 yen but I passed on them as well.

Now researching this topic with the power of Internet search, I find Play Asia claims this "Asia" version is NTSC-J and PAL. Huh. I hope my legs are out of commission, at least long enough to not go back to the store during this vacation. Must resist.

No tate for you: Gigawing Generations

(tags game, shmup, PlayStation 2, failure)

A first release cover for the PS2 version of GigaWing Generations surfaced recently for about 2500 yen, so I took it home. I know from previous outings that GigaWing 1 and 2 were vertical scrolling with landscape orientation. I also know from the last time I saw GWG in the arcade that it was vertical scrolling with portrait orientation (tate). However, this port lacks the tate. Combined with the small screen I was playing it on, and my recent bout with sickness, I wasn't feeling the good gaming vibe.

Welcome the big numbers. I didn't pay attention to the music, despite the memory that GW2 had some pretty epic score.

What are you aiming at? Ikaruga on the XBLA

(tags game, Ikaruga, shmup, failure, bug, replay-data)

So I'm like totally excited that Ikaruga (斑鳩) is now out on Xbox Live. I downloaded it at 1900 local time, just an hour after it was released. I even bought the icon packs and theme, whoa fanboy.

I start tweaking it. Key controls are totally configurable, except for there's no rapid fire (not hold down button but the one stream many times a second button pushing emulation). The usual arcade control configuration is not the default here, because the Release is not Shot + Polarity. Also the HUD is customizable, so you can emulate the Gamecube version's vertical Absorb Bar. Oh and its all in English probably due to my system settings. This is my first time to understand the story text, actually.

I start playing it and I just collapse... I mean I totally forgot how to play this game! Ouch. I play it for an hour, switching from the regular controller to my joystick. I can't get past level 2, boo hoo. I think my best non-continue record was mid-way level 4, way back when. Unfortunately I'm feeling the old frustration kicking in. Must continue playing this game. Must.

Ikaruga plays like it should play. I didn't notice any anomalies and the dreaded PAL homing bug isn't here. Unfortunately, the menus are slow and the game asks you multiple times which storage device you want to use. WTF The menus are not the arcade experience or other home console emulations.

But take a look at this. I downloaded a replay from the top of the leaderboard, a 1CC with a respectable score of 19 million. However, starting from stage 4, there is a replay bug as if the ship's data is not recorded. The stage replay still continues, but the enemies aim their bullets at one spot slightly off screen. The picture above shows homing lasers homing onto nothing. Wut. Hopefully, only replays are the buggy. :-/

I need to fix my joystick so that it doesn't slide on my desk. And I need to fix my brain so that I can actually play this well. :0

Dual Browsers, Duel Browsers: Opera

(tags browser, Firefox, Opera, failure, resolved)

I totally depend on Firefox now. I haven't used Sleipnir in a long time, thanks to Tree Style Tab. However FF 2.x becomes pretty slow when I bog it down with 20+ extensions and 50+ tabs. I wanted another FF to run on my second screen (dual monitor).

I couldn't figure it out, so I tried out Opera. I like how its fast and "g search" works in the address bar just like FF. But it lacks the convenience of FF and plus Alt-Enter in the address bar doesn't work the way I want. It is stable and consistent though.

I saw FF 3.x beta was getting more beta releases out. There was number 4 and now number 5, just a day or two ago. I try them out using the Portable Apps version. I want to run FF 2.x and 3.x beta simultaneously but that was the original problem. I got smart with "Run Multiple Firefoxes? (solved)".

It won't be long now before I give Opera the boot and the uninstall. I hardly knew yeh.

Great artwork, crap story: Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora

(tags manga, anime, 2007, failure)

I finally got around to reading Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora (京四郎と永遠の空), the manga. The first two volumes were somewhat interesting, but the story fell apart in the third. The artist Kaishaku (介錯) draws faces really well. I love the long flowing hair, long skirts, and meido. The color illustrations rock as well.

Still, what a waste of time. I want some kinda of logic in my stories, please.

The only reason I gave the manga some time is because I store my Xbox 360 discs in this nice Kaishaku-illustrated CD case. Or maybe it's by the anime staff. I bought it for the rawr factor, intending to watch the anime later on. Somehow, the manga was more convenient to start.

Anyway, I'm totally unmotivated to watch the anime. :-p

Calmin' Napalmin': Bangai-o Spirits (video)

(tags video, game, Dual Screen, Bangai-O, replay-data, failure)

I didn't want to go out with a "Game Over", so here I am clearing the same stage with two 100 x 4 Reflect Missile bonuses: "Calmin' Napalmin'"

This time I used EX Weapon Bounce + Napalm. Dumb rockets get the job done. winner. :-p

I also wanted to share not the just the video, but the replay data for "Homing don't play that" and "Calmin' Napalmin'". Bangai-O DS's unique feature for sharing Edit Stage data and Replay Data is a great concept. However the execution is poor. Out of probably over a hundred tries, I was only able to reload my replay data ONCE. And that was when it was RAW. I am not yet able to load stuff when I convert it to MP3. The official page has a couple of new stages recorded in MP3, so it should work, right? I tried both my "phat" DS and "slim" DS. I also tried getting away from my noisy computer, but with no success. FAIL.

stop drinking cafe ole at night

(tags food, drink, failure)

Dood, I have been drinking cafe ole bottle drinks at night. WTF. Maybe the caffiene or the sugar kick keeps me awake. My reflexes are shot at this wee hour though, so no 1cc Contra DS, yer right.

Perhaps tomorrow will be a blog frenzy. I have so much to talk about and pictures to share, but of course its the usual useless "ooh shiny" consumer topics. Well I just keep on writing because this blog is for me.

Couldn't find a Comic Blade: Aria, Fairial Garden

(tags manga, magazine, Japan, Fairial Garden, failure)

I forgot to get the latest Monthly Comic Blade issue (2008-04), which has the latest episode of Fairial Garden. Woops. I checked today (after its been on the stands for two weeks) but it seems to be sold out at all the shops. Why?

(Monthly Comic Blade 2008-04)

According to a user review at Amazon and of course the front cover, it's the last episode for Aria. I don't follow Aria, but any manga that gets a third season anime TV series must be a cash cow.

I'm going to go to the less trafficked stores during the weekend. I hope there'll be a copy for me.

Books Lashinbang Kobe Sannomiya opens

(tags failure, telephone card, ecsite, doujin, Kobe, anime, manga, character goods, 200803, Shining Wind, Estrian Odyessy, CD)

On Saturday I woke up early but played the FFTA. Then I remembered Books Lashinbang Kobe was opening today. I need to put these things on my calendar. And I need to review my calendar every day. :-/

Anyways I got there 5 minutes before, and the line was somewhat okay, probably about 100 people in front of me. I was able to get in around 10:30 AM. I headed straight for the telephone card (TC) cases which were in the back. It goes without saying that it was packed. I couldn't see over the other people lining up there. I didn't see anything I really wanted, and I started to peruse the rest of the store, bouncing off fellow otaku. Still I didn't want to exit just yet so I headed back to the TC cases again. I then decided to get the two TCs pictured here.

The bottom right TC is that PlayStation 2 game Shining Wind related illustration with beautiful, lovely Kureha in a miko dress. WIN. I've seen it before at Books Lashinbang Osaka and K-Books Osaka and the price is the same over there. Might as well commemorate the shop opening with something special.

The second TC at the middle left is a DS game Etrian Odyssey II (世界樹の迷宮II 諸王の聖杯) which was an exclusive to Akihabara-based game store Messe Sanoh. The game itself was release just two weeks back, and according to the description, it's a "classic RPG" with manual mapping (whoa). Emulate the grid paper on yer DS. I don't care about the game, but I love the illustrations and wallpaper. The illustration theme is receiving a belated Valentine chocolate from the (tsundere?) blond hair gunner (job class) chick. What a cute "Jack Frost" badge. I don't even think she has a name. I scoped this same card at the Telecard Paradise Osaka store for like 4500 yen, so maybe its a deal. Also, the game comes with a soundtrack with that Insert Credit sound artist favorite Yuzo Koshiro (古代 祐三) and others. The cover illustration is again the blond hair gunner. Nice nice maybe I'll get the game nice nice. No.

I also bought some cheep manga: Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora volume 1, and CDs: the Loco Roco single and Angela Aki's "Kiss Me Goodbye" single for Final Fantasy XII. I have the over-sexy Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora CD case holding my Xbox 360 discs, but I never explored the story until now. Also this is the first time I've seen a store selling Quo Card plastic sleeves. Quo cards are a different size than TCs so you can't reuse the TC plastic sleeves for them.

It's too bad I decided to get the stuff late, because I was only able to get the exclusive clear file pictured above. If I was perhaps 10 minutes earlier, I could have got the exclusive TC (with slightly more horndog illustration, rawr). Doh. I really wanted something related to Kobe because heck I live here. The illustrator is 憂姫はぐれ先生（サークル：WIRE FRAME）. I suppose this link is NSFW, but it's not up now.

There seems to be some other specials, centering on telephone cards. Goodie. Take for example this one, a Card Captor Sakura TC set "celebrating" the re-release of the manga a year or two ago. I did check the price. Each card is 3_5000 yen +. A little steep, don'cha think?!?

I went to the store again this Monday evening and there's a healthy crowd of people there looking and buying. I was hoping that the Kobe-only exclusive card was available, because net auctions rip hard. No luck.

Here begins another store relationship. This location does seem to have a lot of interesting things and good selection, for now. I do hope they expand their TC selections. I want more stuff with daishi (台紙, lit. card backing) and more all ages stuff like Di Gi Charat. I am not interesting in the eroge TCs even though they are rawr.

Next Season next month: Kimi ga nozomu Eien OVA 2 delayed; CDs

(tags anime, DVD region 2, Kimi ga nozomu eien, failure, CD)

I wondered why the second episode in the Kimi ga nozomu eien Next Season OVA series (君が望む永遠～Next Season～) was not at the shops. The first episode left me hanging.

It turns out that it will be delayed a month. Aww please. :-/

The above picture shows the "stamp rally" cards for Kiminozo and Kodomo no Jikan (こどものじかん) DVD sets. I should bring the Kiminozo card when purchasing the second and third OVA DVD. BTW, I don't understand why Bandai now is officially stepping in with a full-set purchase incentive.

Underneath are some cheep bargain bin anime related CDs I picked up today. 500 yen each, can't beat that. The first is 2006 anime Angel Heart opening song "Battlefield of Love" by Asami Izawa (伊沢麻未) I five-starred Izawa's ending song for the 2005 anime Eureka Seven called "Fly Away", so seeing her in the bargain bin was kinda sad. She has that J-R&B soulful sound, smooth.

The second CD is the opening and ending themes of the PS2 game Binchoutan Shiawase Goyomi (びんちょうタン しあわせ暦) featuring Isako Saneyoshi (さねよしいさ子). What would you do if you saw a girl with a charcoal stick on her head? Hahaha. Anyway, Saneyoshi sang the opening and ending songs for the 2005 anime Peto peto san. I five starred her "Kaeri michi" (帰り道, lit. return path). Her voice is really wierd, like Halko Momoi wierd. I think moe or iyashikei when I hear her.

Okay, the caffiene from the cafe latte drink should be wearing off now. Time to level up some guys in FFTA and then level up my piss-shot and sleep skillz, respectively.

Play this one and no other: Idolmaster Live For You with Miki Hoshii doll

(tags game, Xbox 360, Idolmaster, failure, figure, ToHeart2)

Like Mr. Alvin, I got my Idolm@ster Live For You with the Miki Hoshii figure today. It looks like this:

This package is the tenth part of the "Birthday Goods" series. When I saw the figure's eyes, the green was more emerald than muted black. I was a little disappointed because the combination of green and yellow paint on a real-life figure doesn't look so great, but at least the face is just as attractive as the picture in the original advertisement. There are a lot of hand attachments, too, great.

The 26000 yen set came a scratch off card (pictured middle) so that you can download the first DLC song for free. Also I picked up my pre-ordered Idolm@ster branded Xbox 360 Live Point cards. This is card type B (pictured right). I picked up card type A yesterday. Lastly, (pictured left) Geemaga Magazine issue 2008/04 had a bunch of special Idolm@ster goods bundled in, a DVD introducing the radio show featuring Chiaki Takahashi (たかはし智秋 voicing Azusa) and Asami Imai (今井麻美 voicing Chihaya) and a pencil card:

ゲーマガ 4月号 発売日：2008/02/29　価格：980円(税込)
内容省略
アイドルマスターL4U! [全力応援号!] 特製下敷き＆激レア映像収録DVDつき！
【注目作】アイドルマスター　ライブフォーユー！
【ふろく】☆「アイドルマスター ライブフォーユー！」特製下敷き
【DVD収録タイトルリスト】
■ゲーマガ・オリジナル映像アイマスレイディオ出張版

So I was in Nipponbashi early this evening, trying to avoid the otaku purchase crowds. Today was the release of ToHeart2 Another Days PC ecchi game. Some stores were open till 21:00 instead of 20:00 because of this and other major product releases. Man there were some long lines (thanks foo bar baz). I was riding up an Sofmap elevator and the otaku-like guy in front of me had 8 or 10 copies of the game. He pressed the button for the buy-back floor (買取の階). Hm, how did this guy get 10 copies of a 10000 yen game and why would he sell them back?

I didn't get a copy of the game myself, but it reminded me that I need to play the PS2 version I bought off a friend. Uh.

I did double check the games I wanted (BioShock in English for 3500 yen used, Burnout Paradise in English used for 6000 yen, Contra 4 DS in English used for 3500 yen, Halo 3 NTSC-JP version in English (!) for 8000 yen used), but I will (must) play Im@s L4U first. My bleeding wallet demands it. That means no new XBLA games, either. Sorry N+ and Trigger Heart Exelica. Sure, good luck with the abstinence.

You lose, part 2: Idolm@ster Live For You themed Xbox 360 Point Card

(tags game, Idolmaster, collectable, failure, Trigger Heart Exelica)

Let's try this again.

Today was the release of Idolm@ster Live For You. I could have got it today if I stayed at home for the delivery.

Let's open it to redeem some point in order to play the Xbox Live Arcade Trigger Heart Exelica.

What!?! orz orz orz roz roz zro zor rozzoroz :-/ Xbox live is "down" for redeeming. Okay now I'm mad. >:-[

I was going to post more pictures of me opening the card case. The packaging is sturdy, but its hard to open. It's the perfect collectable. The card itself is the same stock as the regular XBLP cards, though. The character design itself is from the it-didn't-happen anime, ie, it sucks.

Blah blah blah, I'm going to sleep, but before that I'm going to level up my persons in FFTA.

You lose: Lumines, version 3.51

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, failure, firmware, crack)

Thursday is a fine day for used goods, like Lumines.

OMG, iz it ze h4xx0r rUm1n3z?

No.

orz orz orz orz orz orz orz orz orz orz orz :-/

I can't even play the game because it requires the firmware upgrade, so it's pretty much useless. Plus the cover isn't the original, so I am meh.

orz...

You will not give me a yellow card.

(tags Final Fantasy, Gameboy Advance, game, failure)

Like I've been postscripting on the other posts, I've been playing FFTA. 60 hours in-game, wow, the GBA Micro is convenient. But the Laws are getting tougher now and whenever I get a yellow card (which really isn't a bad thing), I just turn off the game. So much for rolling with the punches.

Is strategy ever going to become necessary in FFTA? I've just been pushing around my "tanks" and mowing down the enemies sloppily.

Spelunkering my own things: Bottle Fairy DVD-Box

(tags DVD Region 2, anime, Bottle Fairy, failure)

While perusing the Yahoo Japan Auctions I usually skip items I have but I clicked on this "Bottle Fairy DVD-Box (domestic version)". (I recently re-watched the English version.) There I read the description: "includes Desktop Accessory CD-ROM". Buh-wha? *sputter* There's PC installable goodies with that box? I didn't even open my copy! I need to find my DVD-Box and install the goodies into my computer now! :-/

Somewhat related, I bought (won an auction of) another set of those four small Bottle Fairy figurines. I brought them to work. They sit right beside my Beavis and Butthead clear trading card and my Pikachu pencil cover. I want to say I don't have more personal crap at my desk, but I can't.

Okay, time to go to sleep but before that let's level up my gals in FFTA.

Code philosophy review

(tags programming, Ruby, Lisp, failure)

After the disappointment that was Paul Graham's Arc and the bewildering "Portrait of a Noob" by Steve Yegge, which insisted that comments and static typing are useless metadata, I found Planet Emacsen contributor Bryan Murdock's pointer to the discipline and punish blog a refreshing change.

No scratch that. I am questioning my reality now. That programming blog, which takes a practical and weathered engineer tone, has great links about questioning recent programmer fads, especially the current whipping boy (and my favorite comfort squeeze), Ruby.

• "Growth, Syntax, Ruby 1.9, and That Bad Smell You Smell".
• Ruby's Domain Specific Language features are anemic? And I thought Rake was pretty damn cool.
• Steve Yegge is a newbie programmer?
• "The problem with languages like Ruby and Java is that everything is an object and every action is a message, except when it isn’t."
• How could a ex-Jet Propulsion Labs and current Google employee lose faith in Lisp?
• "The Problem with Problems with Patterns".
• "In Defence of (0/:l)(_+_) in Scala" WTF?

All of these great posts I got from discipline and punish blog. Suffice it to say I subscribed.

I am afraid to post anything now about programming now. Best to just keep quiet and fap to Emacs.

The second goodbye: closing arcades in japan

(tags game, arcade, failure)

I hear the news about some Japanese arcades closing through Internet, namely through Subatomic Brainfreeze. Obviously I don't go to arcades and I don't buy the monthly magazine Arcadia.

I doubt very much that flagship sites like Taito's HEY or Akihabara's Club Sega are going to go down, so go to Tokyo or Osaka for your hardcore/midcore arcade fix. But I expect little rinky dink or remote arcades in my neck of the woods will be drying up. It seems silly to attribute the arcade downturn to the Wii, because they provide different experiences and cater to different audiences.

Will this mean more experiments in arcade gaming like Idolm@ster, those card-based soccer/action games (the sit-down type for adults), those crazy hardware games like walking the dog or riding a bicycle or using a sword, and gun games dry up too? And what of those get-em-while-they're-young mini-arcade games like Mushi King and Love and Berry that are nested in family-friendly malls and Toys R Us? Never mind the hardcore games from the likes of Cave and SNK.

Consumer home game consoles and high gas prices are taking their toll on Japanese arcades, according to the Namco-Bandai spokesperson. Stay at home is the mantra this recession.

Bus pop

(tags Rubik's Cube, failure, video)

Well it finally happened. I POP'd my Rubik's Cube on the bus. One of the edge pieces fell out of sight, at least for a short while. It's kinda hard to hear myself laugh with my headphones on. Anyways, I found the edge piece after no help from the other passengers. Now my Cube feels really loose. I wonder if I need to tighten it.

Speaking of loose, what are these clamps for? Why does pushing the center facelet away from the center make it loose?

Speaking of Rubik's Cube, rubiccubist linked to a recent Honda UK commercial video involving Rubik's Cubes on a grand scale. Nice.

Screech, screech: recent seiyuu cd buys

(tags seiyuu, anime, music, CD, failure, manga)

I've always had a stack of CDs I haven't ripped, and I can't figure out how to motivate myself to get through them all. Mostly they consist of anime/manga drama CDs and character song CDs. But if it's purely music, rippin' is totally effortless.

I watched (田村ゆかり) Yukari Tamura's recent live concert DVD at a shop. It is really annoying to see her look down at her feet every few seconds. Anyway, I happened to find a song I liked from her. I couldn't figure out the name of the song though. So (therefore?) I got her "best album" Sincerly Dears, but still a sucker for completeness so it's the DVD + CD version. This is not a recent release, however. After listening to the CD, the only song I liked was "douwa meikyuu" (「童話迷宮」, lit. fairy tale maze), the song from the anime Akazukin (おとぎ銃士 赤ずきん), which I already had. I like her deeper "grown woman" voice than her "Nanoha" voice, when singing. Another example is "kagayaki no kisetsu" (「輝きの季節」, lit. bright season) and "fukashoku-na ai" (「不可触な愛」, lit. untouchable love). Perhaps I need to give the new songs a chance, because my other 5 star songs from her are "Nanoha" like.

The blind-sided release this time around was (高橋美佳子) Mikako Takahashi's Sweet CD, pictured middle. I like for her parts in Honey and Clover and probably other animes I can't remember. And I thought she was totally hot in one of those H&C interviews. Unfortunately, apart from the up tempo rhythm and the zettai ryoiki front cover, I don't like this CD. :-/ It must be her wavering, quick to clip voice. According to Wikipedia, this is her self produced album, taking about three years to create. On a related note, ever since her character in Hayate no Gotoku was associated with a hamster, I've had a hard time seperating her voice from that image. :-)

I wasn't expecting more than a couple of good songs from (堀江由衣) Yui Horie's latest CD release (pictured right), but at the last count I've five-starred 6 out of 14 songs, with the rest at four stars. It must be the upbeat rhythm and the way she hits those high notes, which sounds so pure. "zutto" (「ずっと」, lit. always) and "lovely everyday" (「ラブリエビリデイ」) stick in my mind. Instead of buying it at Gamers (for a poster and point card exchange) I bought it at Animate (the one pictured below) because B5 paper holder takes up less space (above pictured bottom right).

I also recently bought (茅原美里) Minori Chihara's Message 01 DVD + CD. I couldn't stomach finishing this DVD. She sounds like an dumbass! :-/ Some of her answers to an interview are truly WTF. The above picture is her shop tour at the major Animates. Okay, I'm going to fast forward to the part where she's street singing in Akihabara, according to houkoholic. Oh yeah, it starts at 37:05, all 20 seconds of it, and at 38:42, for a little more than a minute . She sounded so good with her solo rendition of "hare hare yukai" (「ハレ晴レユカイ」, lit. sunny sunny happiness), but the other songs I have of her just don't deserve more than 4 stars.

edit: added Chihara picture

Sayonara Toys 'R Us Kobe: Rubik's Cube measured times

(tags Rubik's Cube, times, failure)

I didn't know this until the beginning of this month, but the Toys 'R Us in Kobe where I got my Wii pre-order (2006) and Rubik's Cubes (2007), closed for good on Friday (2008-01-10). What a shock. That building, now called Bee's Kiss, used to house the Kobe Sofmap that I always frequent. Now the only reason for me to go to that building is to check out the 100 yen store. There are some other Toys 'R Us in my area but nothing of interest around them. I guess it's up to Osaka, especially Nanba (Den Den Town frolicking).

So last week I checked out the bargains if any. The discount video game bins were already pilfered but I got some Xbox 360 games like Burnout Revenge (again? with Achivements!) and Kameo. And I took this opportunity to get a Rubik's 2x2 Cube, Rubik's Professor (5x5) and a Rubik's Earth, though only the Earth was discounted.There wasn't much else though I did see a Suzumiya Haruhi jigsaw puzzle going for 300 yen (originally 1500 yen). Oh yeah and I also bought a discounted Pikachu bath towel. :-)

I can solve the 2x2. I cannot solve the 5x5. :-/ Since this is a Rubik's Cube post I'll just show the Rubik's Cube pictures:

And here are my times. Jeez, I don't measure my times enough. And protip: don't attempt to learn new moves one day before measuring times.

----- JNetCube Best Average for Sat Jan 12 20:24:25 GMT+09:00 2008 -----

Average: 1:08.95 (1:09.33 -0.38 last month)

Fastest Time: 57.94 (53.08 +4.86 last month)
Slowest Time: 1:28.25 (1:28.25 hmm)
Standard Deviation: 05.91 (07.14)

Individual Times:
1:05.26 R B2 D B2 L' B U2 B2 L D L D2 F U F' U' B' D' L' U2 D' L' B F L2
1:01.67 B2 R L2 F U R2 L2 D2 L2 D' R F' D U2 L R B' F' L F' L' B2 R' U' B
1:28.25 R' D' F R F' R' B2 R2 U' F' U F2 U R' L2 D' R D2 R F2 B R' U2 F2 L'
1:09.20 B L2 U F' U' R2 L' D2 F' R D L2 F2 U F2 B' U' B R2 B' F' L' F R F'
1:11.67 D2 F' D2 L' F' B R L D B' L2 D L B2 U2 R2 B U D F R D2 F' D2 U'
1:08.09 R D2 R2 U' R' L' D2 B' F R F R U R U2 B2 L2 R F2 R' U' F U B2 D2
0:57.94 D' U' F2 L' F L' D2 L' U' D' B' U' R' D2 U2 B2 D L B2 D L' U2 L2 B2 R'
1:00.65 D' F U L2 B F2 L2 D' B' U' F2 L D2 L2 B F' R U' F2 D2 L B' R' D' R2
1:06.00 B L' R' U2 L2 R2 F2 U' F' B' D' U2 F L2 D2 R' D' F2 R F' L D B D' L2
1:11.98 U' B' F' U' L2 D L' D2 U2 L2 B2 U' L2 B2 D R' F2 D' F U2 R L' B F' R'
1:15.54 L' D L' F L2 U2 R' B' D' U' B R' L F' B' D2 R' D2 B D' R2 D' B' F' L
1:19.42 F' U2 R' U' D B D2 R2 L' F2 L2 R' F D' R U' R2 F D2 B' U2 L' R2 D' F2

I am 25 months away from attaining my one minute goal! :-( I have no idea why, but my hands were slick with sweat, which is not normal.

telephone card ordering follies: Megami Magazine, Geemaga

(tags telephone card, failure, magazine, mail order)

I wrote this around 2008-01-02. :-)

I ordered the 2008-01 issue telephone cards from Megami Magazine via the usual mail order fixed price money order (定額小為替) but I put the envelopes in the nengajyou only (年賀状, New Year's Postcards) postal box. It needed to be stamped with that day's date, too, but will it be done? I made the mistake because the same box is usually used for domestic mail. :-(

Also I paid for those 2008-01 Geemaga Noboru Kannatsuki telephone cards through the self-service post office ATM (ゆうちょ銀行振り込み) but I forgot to mark which telephone cards I wanted on the sheet. Stupid stupid. Because I marked the wrong places on the paper (I was in a rush, not grasping at straws!), the ATM machine couldn't read it, and verifying with human help I figured out I need better aiming skills. :-/ How am I going to follow this up? I'll give them a call on Friday or next week.

Update (?): I gave them a call today and they got my name, address, phone and money transfer number. "Wait until March" Hm. All I can do is believe them, right?

Since that mail in thing is two month offer, I bought the 2008-02 issue (available end of 2007-12) to get just one more telephone card. Very nice cover. There was even a poster of the cover, which is currently hanging on my refrigerator. Happy new year, indeed.

Rather than regret not buying something, regret it after you buy it

(tags purchase, failure, game, Xbox 360, shmup)

Well, after writing that long whiny post about not buying stuff two days ago, I, in fact, stayed at home. I should proclaim stuff like that to Get Things Done. "I'm not going to Maui". :-)

I was playing and credit feeding Shikigami no Shiro 3 for the easy-peasy Achievement Points. And I caught up on my j1m0ne blog reading habit and caught this gem among all the other excellent posts:

23. "Rather than regret not buying something, regret it after you buy it"
(買わないで後悔するより、買ってから後悔しろ。)
-Does that not sound like the thoughts of many of us otaku after unwrapping figures that look retarded?

Yes it does. Indeed. Improving my personal finances against my otaku lifestyle is definately impedence mismatch.

Shh... My wallet doesn't know what this here credit card has been doing. Especially online. Especially auctions. :-)

Mission impossible failed, retry online: Gamers point card 2007/12 Rabi en Rose

(tags telephone card, failure, Koge Donbo)

On Friday night I saw that the Gamers point exchange telphone card drawn by Koge Donbo for this month was already out of stock at Kobe. Once they are gone, they are gone. I blame the high schoolers' winter vacation. So I went to Osaka today to canvas two other Gamers stores, Nipponbashi Nanba and Osaka Umeda, but of course, there's nothing. Argh. I checked the telephone card reseller areas like Books Rashinbang, K-Books, TC Paradise and Sofmap Treasure box but there was nothing to be found. Do I have to go to Kyoto or Himeji? Oh wait, Himeji is no more. My mind is playing tricks on me. Or is it that the house of Dejiko is trading at an all time low? (Edit: My mind is weak. I was thinking Animate for some reason. There was never a Gamers Himeji)

On the online front, Yahoo Auctions (keywords: キャラト テレ) has some but its going for like 2500 yen plus. I'll have to do a wait and see. Besides, I'll be in Nipponbashi again during winter break hopefully sniping some Comic Market stuff floating this way.

Coming back home to Google Reader: disappointing FastLadder evaluation

(tags blog, application, online, failure)

I was motivated by the Planet Emacs resident antipop's post about FastLadder, a web-based feed reader, so I gave it a week. Fastladder has some good ideas and great performance, but I am totally used to post-based read marking, so now I'm back to Google Reader for good.

Here is the list of advantages and disadvantages I see.

• + Unbelievably fast for moving from post to post, feed to feed. Almost as fast as your key repeat (Google Reader cannot do this)
• + Natural keyboard shortcuts+ Pin the interesting posts then open them all with one key stroke (Google Reader cannot do this)
• + default can be set to sort oldest first (Google Reader cannot do this)
• - Cannot mark individual posts as read, forcing you to read the whole feed at once
• - "Mark as read" link only at the top, not at the bottom
• - Formatting of pictures not preserved (no centering)
• - no keyboard shortcut to mark feed as read.
• - clicking on a post body does not move the page (a Google Reader feature)
• Not evaluated: Open ID compatible (Google Reader does not have this)

Basically the deal-breaker for me was the first disadvantage. I often like to go into a feed, but then skip it. It's the "why did I walk into this room?" syndrome? Or, you know those heavy photo-expose feeds like Engadget? I like to jump in and out so that the read items are purged from browser memory. With Fastladder I would go into a feed, but then by default it would mark the whole feed as read. I turned off this function but then the manual way to mark as read made me scroll all the way back to the top. Dumb dumb dumb.

Coming back to Google Reader feels natural, but I miss the speed. I am now going to memorize the keyboard shortcuts.

Extracting the rest of the fun out of Unreal Tournament 3

(tags game, Unreal Tournament, FPS, failure, programming, quotation)

Well Saturday afternoon was altogether a disappointment on the Unreal Tournament 3 front. I can't play UT3 and have fun at the same time because of my slow computer Project Sugar. For example, on the first campaign map, which is just one-on-one deathmatch with your character's sister "Jester", my computer freezes then revives then freezes, in about 2 minute intervals. If I turn off the ATI video card "VPU Crash Utility", I can complete the map but with these painful 30 second black screen interruptions. :-( Never mind that the graphics are rendered at 320x200 with double-sizing and the mouse feels laggy. At least I can log in with my "CD-KEY" so its not pre-h4XX0r'd.

So I decided to see what else I can do. I ran the Credits, probably the last thing I would do if ever. Now I know why the install directory is 6+ GB. There's pictures of all the developer and artists in there. Heh.

Tim Sweeney: "It is easier to change the world than to adapt to it."

Tim Sweeney is one of my personal programmer heros. I would personally rank him over John Carmack because the former is frequently thinking about higher-level programming idioms as well as making game engines. Well it's my humble opinion that making programming easier for people has more priority than tuning to the machine. Maybe this is an ivory tower versus everyman battle, since John Carmack is also very inspirational with his code-for-all open-source stance.

I was a bit surprised with his low-key presence in UT3. Then again he's reportedly off in the clouds thinking about the next game engine, Unreal Engine 4.

Instead of thanking his support, Sweeney chose to be inspiring. This seems to be a rephrasing of a George Bernard Shaw quote: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man." Go progress!

Cliff Bleszinski: "Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."

Cliff Bleszinski is also one of my heroes, not just because we share first names. He's a gamer turned game dev and is really good at map flow, speeches and hyping. But I don't know if he programs or what. I do know he's pretty artistic with his CliffyB's Ownage Map selections from UT99 and UT2004 (sadly dead link?). His quote is acutally directly lifted from H.L. Mencken. I still wonder why Mencken said that originally.

In any case, UT3 will be sitting on my hard drive unused. And, no I can't extract the music because its locked up. Looks like I'll have to buy the soundtrack. Whoa, this site has all the soundtracks I have been wanting recently, Halo 3, UT3, and Mass Effect.

Idolm@ster Birthday Goods "Miki" Figure Pre-Order Battle: YOU FAIL IT

(tags ECsite, figure, game, Idolmaster, failure)

Don't bother reading the whole thing... I lost the battle. :-(

----boring details----

1755: I prep my browsers for the online purchasing. Turn off the proxies. Turn off the bittorentting.

1758 and 40 seconds: I start a Rubik's Cube session.

1759 and 52 seconds: I almost finished my Rubik's Cube solve, but last minute panic makes me lose my concentration. Just one more move, but my hand starts moving toward the mouse.

1800 and 1 second: My browser was sitting on the pre-order link, so I click it.

oh it's in my cart! ...waiting...

1815: Um, is this thing on? I try resetting my browser's proxy setting, sending a ping to the host, etc. No go.

1823: http://www.happinetonline.com/ is not responding. It's the proverbial "slashdotting". shop.765.jp/idolmaster which is the referring link is also down. :-(

1827: I start blogging this post to past the time in between pressing F5.

1833: let's see if 2ch have any other people complaining. I never use 2ch so I just do a search. Yup. Only one person gloating about it.

1845: Oh, i was able to get it into my cart and start putting in my billing info. But now it's not responding again. :-(

1904: Still not responding. From 2ch: 「無駄な一時間だった」 Yer. I'm wondering if I'm going to spend another hour on this. Heck, why not.

1914: I've already started a JNetCube session and finished two solves. Still no response from the browser windows. Some people are already "giving up", but that's not going to deter me.

1923: Response, billing info input, submit...! no still not responding.

2014: Response... no its down again.

2045: Billing requires you to put in the equivalent of a ZIP code but when it goes out to that server the session times out... Still pressing. Maybe I should have registered as a Happinet luser?

2110: getting tired of typing the same thing over and over. I tried to register, but it dies in the same way. Grr.

2122: It's teasing me now, because the cart display is fast, but the billing page is timing out

2132: Now it's totally dead again. Hm. I need to eat something. I've bookedmarked the "add to cart" and "become a member" in both browsers' link bar.

2136: 「ただ今、ハピネット･オンラインは大変混み合っています。」 An actual replacement message for the whole store is now up. Naw that's just the message for saying the servers are slagged and they've taken the whole store offline, muhhahah. Uhh. Now I can get something to eat.

Halo 2 fun but Kasumi Xbox 1 "dies"

(tags Xbox 1, hardware, failure, FPS)

I've been playing Halo 2's Campaign mode over the weekend, trying to find the levels that I like. So far I like the bridge one not because of the Scorpion but because I can go through it with a Warthog. I try to give my shotgun-riding support my rocket launcher or a rifle. Also I really like the Covenant Carbine and the SMG, they are cool. Again I'm doing the levels on Heroic not Legendary because I wanna have fun.

But on Monday, my "Kasumi" Xbox 1 refused to read my Halo 2 disc. Then I tried an audio CD, which confirmed it was a problem with the drive. My Xbox is effectively "dead". Now I'm faced with the prospect of "hacking" my Xbox 1 though I resolved not to modify it. I'm glad that somebody wrote up this Xbox drive failure problem, but disappointed that its frequent enough to occur. I'll give the "DVD drive cleaning kit" option before looking at adjusting the laser's potentiometers (!), replacing the laser (!) or replacing the drive unit (.).

With any hardware failure I am despondent. I even fleetingly reconsidered not buying a Xbox 360. Ha, yeah sure.

No line for you: PSP "Lite" Crisis Core Pack

(tags hardware, PlayStation Portable, store, pre-order, failure)

Glad I went to the Sofmap Kobe one day early. The Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII (クライシス コア -ファイナルファンタジー VII-) 10th anniversary limited edition pack is totally sold out, even by pre-order.

Even if I line up (like last time), there won't any left. I didn't pre-order because I thought I wasn't interested in the game. I suppose I'm more interested in getting a PSP "lite" one week early. I was thinking of heading off to Osaka's Yodobashi Camera and/or Den-Den Town's Sofmap to line up, but I don't really want to.

Oh and I finally saw some plastic mockups of the PSP "lite" color variations. I change my mind, the Lavender Purple is the one I want.

Its hard enough as it is with the right colors: Rubik's Cube Revenge

(tags Rubik's Cube, failure)

This is my Rubik's Cube Revenge, which is a 4x4x4 cube. I've only kept it around for decoration