Nine Over Ten 9/10: Features

Showing posts with label Features. Show all posts

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Of Mario Plush Toys and Discounts - Nine Over Ten 9/10 Holiday Shopping Guide

If you were to ask me where to get Mario related plush toys in the Klang Valley, I can give you a few pointers. There's a stall at Midvalley's lower ground floor opposite Kenny Rogers that sells them. There's also another stall at Sunway Pyramid, located at the floor below the cinema, towards the new wing.

However, don't ask whether these are original merchandise or not, because having set eyes on one of the mushroom plush toys sold at the Sunway Pyramid stall, I don't really care.

Speaking of plush toys, here are some to look out for:

The Mario Party plush toys are being sold at a discount at Play-Asia, so don't miss it. And yes, these are official merchandize.

Check out as well the extensive Toys & Figurines section at Play-Asia.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Nine Over Ten 9/10 Holiday Season Shopping Guide for Nintendo Wii Owners

Welcome to Nine Over Ten 9/10's 2007 Shopping Guide for the Holiday Season. Looking for a gift for your gamer friend, or someone who is into Japanese anime figurines and collectibles? You just about came to the right place.

Now, if your friend has a Nintendo Wii, he would be like those Playstation 3 guys, complaining about the lack of games, and also the rather expensive price tags of current games. No matter, he should be happy this holiday season as you would be the one buying, not him.

So what should be on your shopping list? Here you go:

Wii Zapper with Link's Crossbow Training - Nothing better than a whole new way of playing with the Nintendo Wii (as if it doesn't have enough options as it is) with the Wii Zapper. Click here for details.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle - Bring down the house with the latest in the Guitar Hero franchise, now available on the Nintendo Wii. Comes with a wireless Guitar Hero Les Paul Guitar Controller. Click here for details.
Super Mario Galaxy - Mario is back in what maybe the best and prettiest Mario game yet. Click here for details.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Plunge into one of the best First Person Shooter experience on the Nintendo Wii in the role of Samus Aran with her suit, and her nifty morph ball mode. This is the latest installment of a franchise nearly as old as Nintendo's involvement in home consoles. Click here for details.
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition - Some people I know bought a Gamecube just so they can play the Gamecube version of Resident Evil 4 when it first came out. With its pedigree as a systems mover, RE4 gets its very own Wii Edition with controls featuring the Wiimote and Nunchuk. Click here for details.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Mario, Zelda and Metroid games form a bastion of old school franchises that have become hits in this current generation of video game consoles. A classic and a must have in its own right, click here for purchase details.
Mario Party 8 - What's a Wii without a party game or two? Fill in the blanks with the latest edition of Mario Party! Click here for details.

Tired of games? Give your Nintendo Wii-owning friend of yours some accessories!

Another great gift idea would be guide books:

Super Mario Galaxy Collector's Edition: Prima Official Game Guide - Comes with a signed note from Mr. Shigero Miyamoto
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Collector's Edition (Revised): Prima Official Game Guide - Hardcover with new content!
You and Wii: Everything You Need to Know - Comes with stickers and whole lot of stuff to do with your Nintendo Wii.

Nine Over Ten 9/10 Holiday Season Shopping Guide for Xbox 360 Owners

Welcome to Nine Over Ten 9/10's 2007 Shopping Guide for the Holiday Season. Looking for a gift for your gamer friend, or someone who is into Japanese anime figurines and collectibles? You just about came to the right place.

If you have a friend who owns an Xbox 360, chances are his machine would be spending the entire holiday season at Microsoft due to 3ROD, but if he's lucky to have his machine with him, here's some games that you should look into to spread some holiday cheer! Games come with no region protection unless specified:

Half Life 2: The Orange Box - This value for money compilation features Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. And it comes with Half Life 2 and Half Life 2: Episode 1. Available at Play-Asia, USD 49.90, with free shipping. Click here for details.
Gears of War (Platinum Collection) - No holiday will not be complete without a classic or two, and here's one which should stand the test of time. If your friend doesn't have this game, kindly enlighten him. Besides, at USD 29.90 with free shipping, it wouldn't burn a hole in your pocket to get him this. Click here for details.
Assassin's Creed - This, is a rather pretty next-gen game from Ubisoft. It's new and shiny and comes with alot of hype (and some good reviews) to back it up. A bit expensive at USD 64.90. But don't worry about the shipping fees, it's free (with a price tag like that you would expect some concessions as well). Click here for details.
Call of Duty 4 - What was formerly a franchise featuring World War 2 era combat, Call of Duty 4 takes a shot at modern warfare instead, and it takes no prisoners. Available at Play-Asia at USD 64.90. Click here for details.
BioShock - The spiritual successor for System Shock 2, BioShock places you in Rapture (lol), a city underwater, instead of a space ship with a really creepy computer. Available at Play-Asia at USD 49.90. Click here for details.
Halo 3 - Like Gears of War, this is gonna be a legend (if it's not already one) on the Xbox 360. Available at Play-Asia at USD 59.90. Click here for details.
Viva Pinata (Limited Edition) (NTSC-J) - Sick and tired of buying a shooter for your friend year in year out? Check out Play-Asia's weekly special which is Viva Pinata Limited Edition at USD 14.90. Click here for details.

For more holiday gift ideas, such as Xbox Live subscription cards and games, visit Play-Asia. Stay tuned for more recommendations on what to get for a console gamer (Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PSP and DS) and figurines/gashapon collector.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Tips on Purchasing Gashapon Online and the Nintendo Wii Keychains Collection

It's been a while since I've covered Gashapon (capsule toys) or even Candy Toys with the Super Mario Bros. Chocolate Egg collection being the most recent purchase.

No matter, Yujin has recently released a set of Nintendo Wii Keychains collection, featuring either the console, or the Wii-mote, each attached to a miniaturized game box featuring the following games:

Excite Truck
Fire Emblem
Paper Mario
Wii Sports
Wario
Zelda

These are now available on Play-Asia. Many have asked that since Play-Asia ships gashapons based on random selection (meaning you don't always get what you want from a particular collection), how do I obtain full sets?

The secret is to order the maximum number of gashapons within a certain collection. Since there are six items inside the Nintendo Wii Collection Keychain collection, place the quantity ordered as 6, and you should be able to get an entire set, with no randoms.

This works for me every time, only failing once, but that particular collection had many items, so it was possible that some where sold out.

Combine this technique with free shipping from Play-Asia and I basically save alot of money, compared to buying from Ebay!

Friday, November 16, 2007

The ROM Report Part V - Running Old Arcade Games on the Nintendo DS with R4DS and MarcaDS (MAME)

For brand new The ROM Report articles, head over to www.nineoverten.com.

In this Fifth edition of The Rom Report, we'll look at running something special on the Nintendo DS, with an exceptionally good looking piece of homebrew software and a bunch of ROMs as well.

According to Wikipedia, MAME, which stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software. In plain English it would mean that old arcade games can be played on MAME emulator running on a PC!

All you need to do is to supply the ROM image of the arcade game, by which downloading them is a legal gray area, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Legalities aside, the same thing (running arcade games using a MAME emulator) can be done with the Nintendo DS! The piece of software that I'm about to introduce may just support a paltry sum of 75 games, but it really is a piece of work.

For starters, MarcaDS looks like a piece of commercial software, with the nice intro screen and all. It even apparently supports the use of the Rumble Pak, but the best part is yet to come. It uses BOTH DS screens to display a game! It's something like playing games from this year's Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits for the Nintendo DS.

Running MarcaDS is pretty easy. Just copy the MarcaDS.nds file to the root directory of your Flash Cart's Trans Flash memory card (Most of the time, it's a MicroSD card). If your Flash Cart's firmware doesn't support auto DLDI patching, it would be a good thing to apply the DLDI patch to the MarcaDS.nds file before attempting to run it.

I've always recommended creating a folder (let's call it MAME) in the Trans Flash memory card, to store games of a specific type. It's a much better way of organizing than just dumping everything in the root directory. Arcade ROMS are stored as ZIP files and you'll have to make sure that the zip file names match the ones listed in the compatibility list.

Here's the entire compatibility list taken from the MarcaDS site. The rest of the site is in French, but you can visit it here.

In order to download MarcaDS, scroll right down to the bottom of the page, with the latest version being the first on the list of files. Click here for a direct download, but it's best to check back with the previous link provided, for latest updates.

Monday, November 12, 2007

The ROM Report Part IV - Running Gameboy Color Games on the Nintendo DS with R4DS

For brand new The ROM Report articles, head over to www.nineoverten.com.

I seem to have more fun playing retro games on the Nintendo DS than my bunch of DS games. The Encyclopedia of Game.Machines has been a great read, full of retro stuff (Play-Asia, USD 29.90)

Normally when it comes to running Gameboy and Gameboy Color on the Nintendo DS, the homebrew programs of choice to run those ROMs would be Goomba and Goomba Color. However, those progams utilise a .gba extension that would require a Slot-2 solution such as a Supercard to run.

I've found a great way for playing GameBoy Color games on the R4DS, or practically any Slot-1 solution such as the M3 and it's called Lameboy. Downloadable via GBATemp, Lameboy is currently in version 0.9 and it's pretty easy to run.

Provided that your R4's firmware is the latest, you would not need to manually apply the DLDI patch on to the Lameboy ROM before running it. The latest R4 firmware will perform an automatic DLDI patch.

So, here are the games that I tried:

Super Mario Bros. DX: Runs like a charm, with very minimal slowdowns. All Mario goodness in 56 colours.
Street Fighter Alpha: With just two fire buttons, fighthing is made easier. Just nice for 2D fighthing n00bs like me.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: Runs pretty fine.
Metal Gear Solid: Like Link's Awakening, it runs fine too.
Wacky Races: Framerate problems abound, not recommended unless you have a wish for epilepsy

Here's a tip while running GBC games on Lameboy, press the "Y" button to expand the game's display to almost the entire top screen of the Nintendo DS.

For previous editions of The ROM report:

Thursday, November 08, 2007

The Rom Report - Part 3: More SNES Games on the Nintendo DS

For brand new The ROM Report articles, head over to www.nineoverten.com.

Welcome to the third installment of The Rom Report! Today we'll look at several SNES games that I've tried to run on the Nintendo DS using SNEmulDS, and without further a do, here's what really works, what works somewhat and what doesn't work at all.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past -This is a classic on the SNES, and even though it plays well on the SNEmulDS, the sound is totally skewed, with loud static being the order of the day. Recommended but play it with the volume turned off.
Metal Warriors - A platformer from LucasArts and Konami featuring mechs, this game is prone to hang at the options screen and actual gameplay lags with a number of graphical glitches. Gamer beware.
Prince of Persia - This Broderbund classic looks pretty, but you'll need to adjust the emulator's GFX settings constantly to let the game look the part. There are Minor but manageable graphical glitches both at the title screen and in-game. A difficult game to play notwithstanding, it's hard not to like an old classic like PoP.
Prince of Persia 2 - Graphical glitches are somewhat worse compared to its predecessor and the lack of sound makes it a flop on the DS.
Samurai Shodown - A personal favourite of mine, this 2D brawler is in the vein of Street Fighter, but with weapons. The graphics are sharp and a marvel to look at despite playing the game on the small DS screen. There's a minor glitch whereby the life bar doesn't seem to show a decrease when hit. No worries though, it starts flashing when you or your opponent is near K.O. Recommended.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time - Another personal favourite of mine, this time it's from Konami. Control one of the four Ninja Turtles through 2D platform levels full of enemy ninjas and a boss at every end. Recommended.
X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse - This is a rather tough game in terms of difficulty, or maybe it's because of the controls that lag abit. I faced no problems running this game.
Zombies Ate My Neighbours - Graphical glitches abound on the main menu but once past that, you'll find the game not hard to love, as it is with the campy title. It's recommended that you set the emulator speed to normal, instead of the default "Fast" to cope with the frantic gameplay.

Side notes: SNEmulDS doesn't really like running .fig files and I wonder why. I've two games, Mechwarrior and Yoshi's Island in .fig format and both don't run properly (no graphics, sound only).

For previous editions of The Rom Report, here's Part 1 and Part 2.

Own The Fella On The Cover of That Video Game...Literally

Video games are generally a part of a mixed-media industry. There's the game, there's the website that promotes the game, there are the YouTube spots, posters, flyers, advertisement and finally, and probably most interesting other than the game itself, are the figurines.

Figurines range from mundane bean bags to highly detailed PVC constructs, and are considered a dime a dozen these days. Fancy owning one of those characters on the cover of your favourite video games? This is the guide for you, and will the first of many in a series.

First up is the cover for Final Fantasy XII (NTSC U/C) By the way, the Greatest Hits version (a.k.a budget-priced version) is now available at Play-Asia, click here for details.

Out of all the characters in the cover, I managed to find 3 in Play-Asia's Bargain Bin, each of them priced at USD 29.90:

Ashe (click here for purchase details)
Vaan (click here for purchase details)
Balthier (click here for purchase details)

Moving now to the cover of Assassin's Creed. This is a new game, a highly anticipated one from Ubisoft which should be coming out anytime soon this November.

The main protagonist, Altair, featured on the cover of the game, is available as a highly detailed 7 inch figurine at Play-Asia, for a bargain bin price of USD 16.90! Click here for purchase details.

Stay tuned for future installments of "Own The Fella On The Cover of That Video Game".

Friday, October 19, 2007

The Rom Report - Part 2: NES Games on the DS

For brand new The ROM Report articles, head over to www.nineoverten.com.

As promised, this is Part 2 of the Rom Report, this time featuring NES games run on the Nintendo DS with the help of a Slot-1 Flashcart and a piece of homebrew software called nesDS.

Before I begin, I'll need to clarify that running SNES and NES games on the Nintendo DS are two separate things and you'll require two different homebrew emulator software, SNemulDS for SNES games and nesDS for NES games. The first part of the Rom Report has got the SNES part covered and if you interested in running SNES games, please refer to my guide here.

The NES games I've tried so far are:

Mappy - This is a really fun game from Namco, where you run about a house as a rat named Mappy, avoiding, if possible, a gang of thieving cats. Don't know who Mappy is? Well I've a 8-bit Dots puzzle depicting him right here.
Ice Climber - This really is a classic in my book. I used to play this game on my cousin's Micro Genius (a NES clone). On the emulator running on the Nintendo DS, the game is smooth and fast, retaining the sense of excitement and challenge as you try to get your eskimo up the ice mountain.
Super Mario Bros 3 - If you don't like the SNES make over of Super Mario Bros 3 in Super Mario All-Stars, this is the game for you. The game runs smooth on the emulator but there's just a slight quirkiness with the buttons. I still don't know how progress is saved though, and the emulator (nesDS) lacks a save state function.
Metroid - Despite having played one of the more recent Metroid games, I can't seem to put a finger on the original Metroid. It is a little boring. But if you were to ask me whether it runs fine, the answer is a definite yes.

Overall, the fun factor is there when it comes to these old school games. The only problem is while the emulator, nesDS, can adequately run the games, it is not up to scratch feature wise, lacking the ability to save and load states. Those features are not missing from SNemulDS when it come to running SNES games.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Rom Report - Part 1: SNES Games on the DS

For brand new The ROM Report articles, head over to www.nineoverten.com.

I seem to be spending more time with SNES and NES Roms on my Nintendo DS rather than my 30-odd Nintendo DS games. So here's a report on what really works, what works somewhat, and what doesn't work at all.

The hardware I'm using:

Dark Blue Nintendo DS
R4DS Slot-1 Flashcart
1 gigabyte Kingston Micro SD card (made in Japan)

The homebrew software I've been using:

SNEmulDS 0.6 for SNES games
nesDS for NES games

So lets start with the SNES games that I've been playing:

Chrono Trigger - Seems to run pretty well. Text alignment is just a teensy-weensy off but otherwise performed well during my brief time with the game.
Contra III: The Alien Wars - There were graphical glitches in the main menu, but once I got past that, the game ran smoothly. Difficult games are not really my cup of tea, so, little play time as well.
Earthbound - This game is probably the best of the lot, but like most games, it does have some kinks here and there when it is run using the emulator. The first boss fight with Frankie didn't go so well because a graphical glitch prevent me from seeing all the important stuff...only the pyschedelic background was showing.

It was only after I fiddled with the emulator's graphics settings that I was able to continue with the game. And it's so far so good! Definately a must have.
F-Zero - I always heard that this game was fast, but maybe the emulator and the small Nintendo DS screen were the cause of speed being lost in translation. It does run fine though.
The Lost Vikings - Not working.
Super Castlevania IV - A finicky game which runs when it wants to.
Super Mario All Stars - This compilation of NES Mario games, re-skinned with graphics to take advantage of SNES hardware is one of my favourite games, along with Earthbound. This compilation consists of the three Mario games release in the US, Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3, and the previously unreleased (in the US) Japanese Super Mario Bros 2, now dubbed as Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.

The save system for Super Mario Bros 3 is abit cooky, and you'll have to replay those levels that you have completed in a particular world again, so don't forget to use the emulator's Save State function instead to save your progress.
Super Mario Kart - Not working.

I'm still running some tests on other games, but do stay tune for Part 2!

Monday, October 15, 2007

My Figurine/Gashapon Collection - With Pictures!

Finally got the time to snap some photos of the recent additions to my figurine/gashapon collection. So here goes:

I'll be uploading these photos to Flickr as well.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Nintendo DS Games This October - What To Buy, Where to Get Them and Free Shipping!

Things are starting to get more interesting for Nintendo DS gamers as some of the more interesting games are released in this month of October.

First up we have The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (USD 39.90 @ Play-Asia), released earlier this month. This game, with the touch screen as its sole means of control, is bound to please both casual gamers and dedicated Zelda fans.

Also coming in this month is Bleach: The Blade of Fate (USD 34.90 @ Play-Asia). This SEGA release based on the popular anime Bleach, promises to be one of the better 2D brawlers on the Nintendo DS. Just be prepared for some sore thumbs.

Returning as more than a sequel to Touch Detective, is Touch Detective 2 1/2 (USD 34.90 @ Play-Asia). That's something you don't see everyday (the 2 1/2 moniker) but apparently the sequel's content justifies it being called a true sequel and then some.

Also returning is The Birdman himself, with Tony Hawk's Proving Grounds (USD 34.90 @ Play-Asia). I love the previous Tony Hawk game on the Nintendo DS as well as the latest one on the PS2 and if the two serve as an indication on what this latest one will be, this certainly will be a blast!

One of my personally anticipated titles would be World Soccer Winning Eleven DS: Goal X Goal! (USD 39.90 @ Play-Asia). I've had an overdose of the original Winning Eleven DS despite it being a Japanese game, and a bargain bin title, but this looks to take the cake as well. More gashapon machine spinning madness for better players!

Ever wonder what happens when you take one of those turn-based World War II PC games where you see nothing but a multicoloured map with lotsa unit names and stats, and put in on the Nintendo DS? Well, you'll get Panzer Tactics DS (USD 34.90 @ Play-Asia) I'm sure that this game will appeal to some of you out there.

These games should be available at Play-Asia, if not by the end of the month and do remember that Play-Asia has a free shipping option, something that I've always used. Expect a 5 to 7 day wait, depending on where you are.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

A Guide to Playing NES Games on the Nintendo DS with nesDS and R4DS.

For more homebrew guides for the Nintendo DS, head over to the brand new www.nineoverten.com.

As promised earlier, this is the guide on how to run NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) games on the Nintendo DS using the R4DS.

First up, you'll need to download a piece of Nintendo DS homebrew-ed software known as the nesDS. The download page is rather sparse, but just click and download the file over at this website. It should be a single file called nesDS.
Copy over nesDS over to the root directory of your MicroSD card.
Once this is done, create a folder called NES in the root directory of MicroSD card, to store all your NES roms inside. This step is not necessary but it's good for proper file housekeeping.
Put in some NES roms into the NES folder.
Fire up the Nintendo DS with your R4DS and MicroSD card inserted.
Run the nesDS file and it should be able to list down all your NES games. Simply select one and enjoy!

This should work with other Slot-1 solutions as well.

Please note that following paragraphs discuss SNES and NES ROMS and in no way implies that Nine Over Ten supports nor encourages the use of ROMs/ISOs/pirated versions of commercial games on other platforms such as Nintendo DS and PC games.

On the case of the legality of SNES and NES ROMs, I've come across several sites whereby they have taken down download links for ROMs of ESA protected games. What's ESA? Well it stands for Entertainment Software Association and from what I can see, they have the jurisdiction to ask sites to cease and desist any piracy activity involving ESA protected intellectual property.

So, where does this leave all the other ROMs? We are talking about ancient games which most people can't and won't play because the NES and the SNES are almost certainly extinct and playing these games has moved on to the realm of the old-school/retro enthusiast. Do we classify them as abandonware, or have the publishers left them to public domain?

This is a grey area that needs to be addressed, but in the mean time, don't let it stop you from enjoying these old classics but If they are ESA protected, leave them be. It's pretty hard to find those titles anyways.

Or as an alternative, get a Nintendo Wii. I hear some of these games are on the Virtual Console. Imagine playing Super Mario Bros. on a 40-inch LCD TV. It's mind-boggling.

How to run SNES games on the Nintendo DS with R4DS?

For more homebrew guides for the Nintendo DS, head over to the brand new www.nineoverten.com.

Short of GBA games, a Nintendo DS and R4DS combination can be used to run (on emulation) games from a myriad of other platforms such as the NES and the SNES.

Here's a guide on how to run SNES games on the Nintendo DS with an R4DS:

First, you'll need a SNES emulator that can run on the R4. I would recommend SNEmulDS, by archeide. You can grab the zip file at his website located here.
Unzip the file to a convenient location in your Desktop. The file contents should look something like the screenshot below.
Copy the two files: SNEmulDS.nds and snemul.cfg to the root directory of your MicroSD card.
Once this is done, create a folder called SNES in the root directory of your MicroSD card. This is the location where you store all your SNES roms.
Place some roms inside the SNES folder.
Start the Nintendo DS, with the R4 and MicroSD card inserted and run the SNEmulDS.nds file. From here onwards it's just selecting the SNES ROM that you wish to run.

Pretty simple right? This technique should work on the M3 and CycloDS as well. Next up is a guide to running NES roms on the R4DS.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Oh Nuffnang, Why Are Thou Found To Be Wanting?

I finally got to cash out from Nuffnang today as my earnings hit the big (actually the minimum) FIVE-O. This paltry sum is a culmination of 17 ad campaigns inthe period between the 25th of March 2007 to the 6th of October 2007, and it practically sucks.

The local ad provider with the tagline Asia's First Blog Advertising Community seems to run Cost Per Unique Visitor ad campaigns on member blogs on a weekly basis. However, gaps when there were no such ads do occur. There were no Cost Per Unique Visitor ads for the following periods:

15th April 2007 to 21st April 2007 (1 Week)
29th April 2007 to 12th May 2007 (2 Weeks)
20th May 2007 to 2nd June 2007 (2 Weeks)
15th July 2007 to 28th July 2007 (2 Weeks of CPC Ads!)
29th July 2007 to 4th August 2007 (1 Week)
5th August 2007 to 11th August 2007 (1 Week of CPC Ads!)
19th August 2007 to 1st September 2007 (2 Weeks)
16th September 2007 to 22nd September 2007 (1 Week)

A total of 16 weeks out of 28 weeks were with Cost Per Unique Visitor ads. If I were to calculate with an average ad earnings of RM 3 a week, 28 weeks would have brought me RM 84 ringgit instead of that sorry sum you see earlier in the post.

The method used here is abit unorthodox but surely you can see that despite the moniker "Asia's First Blog Advertising Community", there's a certain feeling that they lack advertisers and campaigns to go around. And I'm not talking about CPC ads.

Google Adsense has that covered in my case, I make more in a day then what Nuffnang makes for me (in terms of CPC ads) throughout the entire March-October period.

And as my fellow video game blogger in arms has mentioned, I definately make more in a month from my Play-Asia ads (around USD 50 to 60). I don't blog for monetary gain but at least that is helping fund the games, figurines and other video game related items you see on this blog and dear Nuffnang, you are no help at all.

So the question now is, do I go the way of Advertlets...or put up with both. I'm a one woman guy, but I don't think I want to pursue the same philosophy when it comes to local ad providers.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Console Games Top 10 Shopping List

Last week I bought a couple of games, Worms Open Warfare 2 and Mother 3, from my favourite online retailer, Play-Asia. Lets see what other people bought last week in a top 10 list of sorts:

Sitting pretty on top of the list is Bioshock. I haven't got the opportunity to play it yet, for a lack of an Xbox 360 or a souped-up PC, but from what I hear... it's gold. My birthday is coming up, anyone willing to send an Xbox 360 my way? Mucho gracias!

On second place, there is the multi-function device known as the Dual Shooter (EMS USB2). It does several things such as allowing you to use your old Playstation gun controllers on your PS2, and to use your PS/PS2 controllers with your PC!

A guy asked me whether number 3, the Xbox Live 12-month Gold Card (Halo 3) was compatible with PAL consoles. Honestly man, I don't know but I've fired off an e-mail through Play-Asia's feedback page and we'll know soon enough!

Fourth place is the game where almost every Nintendo DS fan has been waiting to a. buy, or b. pirate: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Likewise with the first item on my list.. many thanks if anyone were to sponsor me this.

Halo 3: Collector's Edition is on fifth place, after the snafu earlier last week which saw PA sell Chinese-language only version of the games in place of the English version.Just in case you are wondering, they have corrected the problem (by mentioning it's CHINESE only) and this IS the English version on fifth place.

This was certainly embarrasing for me as well, as I was posting about the game and linking back to the CHINESE version..OMG. I did not correct the post as a reminder of this snafu.

Like the title in fifth place, alot of people are pre-ordering the NTSC U/C version of Halo 3, and I thought most popular games are region free.

More controller compatibility madness with number 7, the XFPS 360 Pro. It basically allows you to connect your PS2 controllers to the Xbox 360 and a whole lot more of other stuff.

Number 8 spot is occupied by an oddity of a Nintendo DS game. On the other hand, most NDS games are odd. Oshare Majo Love and Berry comes with some cards and a card reader and it's selling for a bargain bin price, which would explain its existence on the top 10 list.

Half Life 2: The Orange Box and the Liquid Crystal Filter for the PSP and PSP Slim round up the top 10 list.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Nine Over Ten Presents: The Halloween Gift Guide Catalogue

Let's say that instead of trick-or-treating this coming Halloween, you decide to give out gifts and you happen to have a friend who is a.. horror movie enthusiast/figurine collector/anime otaku/ videogamer all in one.

What are you gonna get for your friend? Let Nine Over Ten and Play-Asia help you with that (click on the links for purchase details).

First up, figurines. Neca has released Series 2, a bunch of figurines commemorating anniversary of the original survivor horror video game, Resident Evil. There's the Tyrant, Licker, Labcoat Zombie, Crimsom Head Zombie, and the Hunter. All of them suitably creepy and scary enough for Halloween.

There's also the ultra-cute, but still horror themed Neon Genesis Evangelion Horror Summer Mini Display Figure. Order a total of 4 from Play-Asia and you stand a high chance of receiving a complete set (no gurantees).

Castlevania fans will have something up their alley with the late September release of Neca's Castlevania 7-inch action figures. Collectors get to choose from Simon Belmont, Dracula, Alucard and Succubus (or get them all for that matter).

If your friend can't bulk up in time to look like Kratos for Halloween, cheer him up with a couple of God of War action figures from Neca.

Enough about figurines, what would Halloween be without some video games? Do you go old-school survival horror and pick up titles such as Resident Evil: The Essentials for the PS2 or Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition?

Or go for newer upstarts such as Dementium: The Ward for the Nintendo DS or F.E.A.R for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and based on its scary predecessor (System Shock 2) alone, Bioshock. And who can forget the Castlevania franchise with games such as Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS.

On the other hand, you can head over to Ebay and trawl for even older horror games such as the aforementioned System Shock 2 (highly recommended by this particular blogger), Clive Barker's Undying and of course, those Blair Witch games which are pretty spooky as well.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Arigato, Sumimasen... Japanese Nintendo DS Games

Looking through my Nintendo DS games library (which currently stands at 29 titles) for some writting material for the upcoming 1 year anniversary of my blog, I realised that I have 9 Japanese titles, seven of them for the Nintendo DS and two for the GameBoy Advance.

Jon's comment on my previous post did highlight an issue whereby while Japanese games tend to be really great, the language barrier makes their target audience a rather limited one. Short of taking Japanese classes, there is pratically no way that I could enjoy Mother 3 the same way a Japanese speaking/reading player can.

What can you do to make your Japanese gaming experience a better one? Well, start by choosing games that do not require much reading or better still, games that rely on symbols and non-Japanese characters to interact with players. In other words: "Import friendly"

Action games such as Jump Ultimate Stars and sports games such as Winning Eleven DS do not require much reading from players, and games such as Electroplankton are almost totally language barrier free. Should you need to know how "import friendly" a Japanese title is, head over to Gamebrink for English reviews of Japanese DS titles and look out for the "Import Friendly?" section in each review.

More information about a game wouldn't heard (afterall, knowledge is power), so don't forget to scour forums and review sites.

The second step would be to get a good guide. Guides are usually created by players to assist other players in navigating or going through the motions of playing, in this case, a Japanese language game. One site that I always go to for guides would be GameFaqs. The search option is pretty good, and you'll just need to key in the title of the game, and you should be good to go.

The last point that I'm about to mention, is rather moot and it can be epitomized in one word: "WAIT". While it is almost impossible to see an English version of Jump Ultimate Stars (due to licensing issues), some games have successfuly survived the conversion to English with some not without drastic changes (e.g. Elite Beat Agents, the English version of Ouendan).

Even so, not all Japanese games are translated to English, hence the moot point. I for one, would prefer the Japanese version of some games over their English counterparts due to the fact that they have better and more interesting box art (yes, looks do play a part in the whole purchasing process).

It's interesting to note that some Japanese games such as the Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) series of games and Theme Park DS come with dual-language options of English and Japanese, but these are more of an exception than norm.

Back to my own collection of Japanese games, the games that I've enjoyed the most are Winning Eleven DS and Warioware: Made in Wario. Football is a universal game, you don't need a user manual/translation guide to play a footie game...that's what I always say and Warioware's mini-games are in two words a "no brainer".

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

How to get cheaper Xbox Live Gold Cards? Halo 3 Themed to Boot!

If you own an Xbox 360, chances are you have an Xbox Live account whether be it a Silver or Gold account.

Silver account holders can "download content, including dashboard themes, gamers pictures, game trailers/demonstrations, movies, game content such as new maps, weapons, levels, characters, challenges, expansions, arcade games and demos; connect with friends/players via voice chat, video chat, instant messenger and text message". (source: wikipedia)

All is nice and dandy but the real meat is in the Gold Account. A Gold Account "adds the ability (on top of the Silver ones) to play online with or against other Gold subscribers". (source: wikipedia)

Now, a Gold account isn't free, you'll need to pay for it. Hardcore gamers would go for the 12-month Gold Cards; Amazon sells these at a discounted price of USD 47.99 each. However, for those of you in Asia, free shipping is not an option for you, should you purchase them from Amazon.com.

So what is an Asian Xbox 360 owner to do? Play-Asia sells these cards at USD 49.90 each and unlike Amazon.com, they come with free shipping and have a HALO 3 theme to them, click here for further details. With a little bit of ingenuity, it's possible to get them at an even lower price.

Say what? You read that right. All you need is a valid Play-Asia coupon (USD 5 off for any purchase above USD 50) and a small item from Play-Asia's vast catalogue of stuff to bump the price of your shopping cart to slightly over USD 50. Some examples include small figurines or junk food like this pack of Magic POP Strawberry Crackling Candy (USD 0.49).

Using that pack of candy as an example, lets do some math:

Xbox Live 12-Month Gold Card (Halo 3) USD 49.90
+ Magic POP Strawbery Candy USD 0.49 = USD 50.39
- USD 5 Discount Voucher USD 5.00 = USD 45.39

You'll just need to pay a total amount of USD 45.39 with free shipping to boot! I've used this method several times to purchase figurines and games from Play-Asia as well. As for Vouchers, kindly leave a message in the comments section and I'll provide you with one Voucher code (I've 5 of them).

Click here to head over to Play-Asia.com.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

How to Play Videos and MP3s on the Nintendo DS: A Guide to MoonShell

For more homebrew guides for the Nintendo DS, head over to the brand new www.nineoverten.com.

MoonShell is a homebrew app used to play MP3 and video files on the Nintendo DS and is a much cheaper option compared to Nintendo's Play-Yan. But of course, you'll need a flash cart, and a handy guide like the one you are reading now. :)

Getting MoonShell to run on your Flash Cart (such as the M3 or the R4DS) is pretty easy. First, you'll need to download the latest version of Moonshell, which also comes with encoding tools for your video files (more on this later). The file can be found at http://mdxonline.dyndns.org/.

The Setup file will generate the Moonshell ROM file and its supporting subfolder and depending on where you instructed it to generate to, you might need to copy the ROM file and its supporting subfolder to your Flash Cart's memory card.

Part 1: Installing MoonShell

Here's a 5-step approach to using Moonshell's Setup screen.

First, select the Setup Target Drive. To keep things simple, select the C: Fixed-HDD option, like the one shown in the screenshot below.
Next, select the ROM image. This selection is based on the Flash Cart that you are using. Since I'm using an R4DS, I select the "R4TF R4(DS) - Revolution for DS".

As for the rest of the options, just follow whatever I've selected here. Click on the Setup button to generate the ROM image and its accompanying support folder.
To copy over the ROM image and the support folder, head over to your C:\ drive (that was the destination drive I set earlier in Step 1). Copy the file and the folder (boxed in Red in the screenshot below) to your memory card.
Once you have copied over the file and folder to your Memory Card, it should look something like the following screenshot.
To take advantage of R4's main menu, which will load Moonshell by clicking on the middle icon, you'll need to rename the MoonShell_R4TF_M3Simply-R4DS(MicroSD Card).nds to _DS_MSHL.nds. Once this is done, you are all set to go.

Now, using MoonShell to play MP3s is pretty straightfoward. As you can see in some of the screen shots above, I've some MP3s in my flash cart (an R4DS). MoonShell will detect the files and then you can get it to play the files. There's really nothing to it.

In the case of video however, you'll need to convert the video first before you can view it using MoonShell on the Nintendo DS. As mentioned earlier, MoonShell comes with a set of tools used to convert your videos to better suite the limitations of the Nintendo DS.

Case in point, a Beast Wars episode (222 mb) was reduced to a 90+ mb package after using the conversion tool.

Part 2: Converting Video for use with MoonShell

The conversion tool is included with the MoonShell package that you've downloaded from http://mdxonline.dyndns.org/. Run the dpgenc.exe file.
Be sure to set the language option to English, otherwise you'll be stuck with rubbish fonts or Japanese.
From here onwards, it's all about the on-screen instructions. Pick a location where you want your converted video file to be stored at, and drag and drop a video file into the box to have the program convert it for you. Easy as pie.
Copy the converted video file into your Flash Cart's Memory Card. Do note that the converted video file has a .dpg file extension.

You can now play the video file in the same manner that you play MP3 files with MoonShell. But don't forget to first stick the Memory Card back into your flash cart after all that copying. Hehe.

For my other R4 related articles: