Posts Tagged ‘Fun’

3d dot game heroes character editor: no limit to your homagination

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

So said Aram Jabbari, Manager of Public Relations and Sales for Atlus, when he shared some info about their upcoming RPG for the PS3, 3D Dot Game Heroes over at the Playstation Blog. And thanks to Jabbari’s post, the game has become a must-buy for me. Why? Because the character editor promises to be a lot of fun, kinda like a simpler and retro-styled version of the Spore character creator. You can create and play as anything that fits within the size limit. I’m not sure, but I think it’s 16 x 16 x 16 of the game’s dots/pixels. You want to play as a single dot? It’s possible! Here’s a shot of a spider-hero being created…

3D Dot Game Heroes Character Editor 1

…And then played in the actual game:

3D Dot Game Heroes Character Editor 2

Players will have to make several “poses” for their custom characters, such as “Walk 1″, “Walk 2″, “Attack 1″ etc., but Jabbari promised that the editor will be very easy to use, thanks to its copy-pasting mechanic and overall intuitive interface. If you really don’t want to mess with the editor (which I doubt), you can start the game with any of the custom characters, like the gorilla seen below. Jabbari says that the North American version of 3D Dot Game Heroes has more custom characters compared to the Japanese version.

3D Dot Game Heroes Character Editor 3

Jabbari also boasted about the game’s real-time lighting engine, which supposedly makes your custom character – whether it’s a detailed armored knight or a random swarm of dots – look nice and purrty:

3D Dot Game Heroes Character Editor 4

Can you see that? A dog as the main character! Players will be able to upload and share their creations on Atlus’ forums. Jabbari didn’t explicitly say that players will be able to download and use other players’ created characters, but it would be a damn shame if that’s not the case.

3D Dot Game Heroes Character Editor 5

A game where you can be a shark’s fin and hold a big-ass sword?! Only a cold, dead mind would not want such a thing! You can pre-order 3D Dot Game Heroes on Amazon for $37 (USD). The game starts shipping on May 11. Atlus, prepare to be flooded with penis creatures and other monstrosities on May 12.

[via Playstation Blog]

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giant sd card holds only 60 photos

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

This is definitely the biggest SD card I’ve ever seen. But despite its ridiculous size, it can only store 60 photos.

sd_photo_album

This giant-size SD card is actually a photo album for holding on to your 4″x6″ photo prints. I like how they even put the metallic contacts on the back of the album for added realism. Can you imagine the memory card reader you’d need to transfer files from this thing?

sd_card_photo_album_back

Now I rarely convert my digital images into prints these days, but for the occasional time I want something more tangible than pixels, I would want one of these to keep my hardcopies in. The SD card photo album ships this April, and is available for pre-order over at Spinninghat for £9.99 (appx. $16 USD).

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superplexus vortex puzzle makes my head spin

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

As its name implies, the Superplexus Vortex is a super-sized version of the Perplexus, a plastic spherical maze. The Superplexus Vortex not only has a catchy name, the mere sight of it is probably enough to make a drunk man vomit. In marketing speak, the gigantic maze is “a complex network of chicanes, multi-planar hairpin turns, spirals, and staircases – even a vortex.”

Superplexus Vortex 1

At least the path has arrows. As far as I know (and that’s not a lot, believe me) each Superplexus Vortex was handmade by a man named Michael McGinnis (he’s the smiling bearded dude shown below).

Superplexus Vortex 2

The acrylic sphere containing the maze measures 36″ in diameter and can be tilted in any direction, and you’ll definitely do a lot of tilting (and swearing) as you try to roll the steel ball from the start to the end of the maze.

Superplexus Vortex 3

Here are some more daunting facts about the Superplexus Vortex: “The entire track laid out on a straight line is 31′ longer than a football field. In addition to the track, the ball must travel on a 1/16″ diameter stainless steel wire pathway at eight points along the journey… successful completion requires a minimum of 425 turns (plane changes) of the sphere–without letting the marble fall off the track.” In other words, you’ll never beat this puzzle.

Superplexus Vortex 4

But perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Superplexus Vortex is its price – Hammacher Schlemmer is selling it for $30,000 (USD). As a consolation, the store does claim that you can adjust the difficulty for your own Superplexus Vortex. Then again, what good is a $30,000 maze if you can solve it in a minute?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[pics via Michael's wife aka thesingingbird's photostream]

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Color Inspiration: Ray Guns

Monday, February 15th, 2010

A very early example of a raygun is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (1898). Science fiction during the 1920s described death rays. Early science fiction often described or depicted raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs. Nikola Tesla's attempts at developing directed-energy weapons encouraged the imagination of many writers. According to the stories, when activated, a raygun emits a ray, typically visible, usually lethal if it hits a human target, often destructive if it hits mechanical objects, with properties and other effects unspecified or varying.

raygunrainbow

The first toy space guns were produced in the 1930s and 1940s. Part of the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon craze that swept the United States, they were an important byproduct of the popularization of space that occurred in the early decades of the twentieth century. During the 1920s and 1930s American Scientist Robert H. Goddard, began the first early tests of liquid-fueled rockets. Disproving the theory that rockets could not move forward in space because there was no air to push against, Goddard discovered the basic principles of rocket science. Yet, ironically, it was not Goddard, the father of space travel, who first caught the public's attention and popularized space exploration. It was a far more fanciful and romantic character, Buck Rogers. - Keep reading at Toy Rayguns

Dr. Grordbort'd Rayguns

The Rayguns: Dr. Grordborts Infallible Aether Oscillators, are a line of immensely dangerous yet simple to operate wave oscillation weapons.

Meticulously built to the exacting standards and plans of Dr. Grordbort, these weapons, bespangled in fine detail and with various (most likely quite dangerous) moving parts are the perfect addition to a gentleman's study or a deterring centerpiece for a lady's powder room or chiffonier.

drgpearcealrg2

Atom_Ray_Gun Star_Burst » More: Color Inspiration: Ray Guns

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Pseudo 3D tricks from old computer games for all your Canvas needs

Monday, February 8th, 2010

It is quite interesting to see how technology moves in circles. With canvas being the new fun toy to play with for creating browser-based games we have to find solutions to fake a 3D environment to be really fast (sure there is Canvas 3D but it is overkill for most games). The trick is to dig into the tricks arsenal of old-school game development on machines full of win like the Commodore 64 or Amiga.

Louis Gorenfeld some very detailed explanations on how to fake 3D including some of the formulas used in the days of 8 bit.

He is also working on some demo code which you can help him with by providing some JS/Canvas demos:

Fake 3D

CODE:
  1. current_x = 160 // Half of a 320 width screen
  2. dx = 0 // Curve amount, constant per segment
  3. ddx = 0 // Curve amount, changes per line
  4.  
  5. for each line of the screen from the bottom to the top:
  6.   if line of screen's Z Map position is below segment.position:
  7.     dx = bottom_segment.dx
  8.   else if line of screen's Z Map position is above segment.position:
  9.     dx = segment.dx
  10.   end if
  11.   ddx += dx
  12.   current_x += ddx
  13.   this_line.x = current_x
  14. end for
  15.  
  16. // Move segments
  17. segment_y += constant * speed // Constant makes sure the segment doesn't move too fast
  18. if segment.position <0 // 0 is nearest
  19.   bottom_segment = segment
  20.   segment.position = zmap.length - 1 // Send segment position to farthest distance
  21.   segment.dx = GetNextDxFromTrack() // Fetch next curve amount from track data
  22. end if
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macamontreal: @michaelheald lolll  the fun is in the masses though.

Monday, February 1st, 2010
macamontreal: @michaelheald lolll  the fun is in the masses though. Tags: , , ,

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3D Photoshop Object Projects and Tutorials – Part II

Thursday, January 28th, 2010
More 3D for Fun and FunctionIn our last article we presented some nifty examples of what you can do with Photoshop in creating your own 3D objects. There are literally thousands of PS objects that you can download from the Internet, but the process of making your own Photoshop 3D items is not only fun [...] Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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fun. – Believe In Me

Friday, December 11th, 2009
Believe in Me [download mp3] by fun. [2009] (in post Song du Jour Nr. 019 from Music Snobs Anonymous. ) Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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Birth Rites – We Put the Fun In Funeral

Thursday, December 10th, 2009
So, did you hear about the snow? Just kidding. It’s pretty frigid in Iowa City these days, as the first snow of the year really made it’s presence felt over the last couple of days. That shouldn’t keep… (in post Freakin’ Weekend: 12.10-12.12 from mission freak!. Download this at iTunes) Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Dragonette – Fixin To Thrill (Cavaliers Of Fun and Anagramme Remix)

Thursday, December 10th, 2009
On their recent trip to New York City, Dragonette hung out with the fine folks of Fearless Music/TV to tape a live segment. Fearless Music pits seven bands against each other, performing hit singles which the TV audience… (in post Dragonette Perform on Fearless Music from Sheena Beaston. ) Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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