crowcity

Edit 12/8/08: Version 0.51 available - contains images of the coins showing whether you’ve tossed heads or tails (rather than plain text).

Here’s an i Ching / Yi Jing / Chinese Book of Changes oracle I made for Nintendo DS. I’m releasing this on 8/8/08 as the number 8 is considered lucky in many Asian countries.

Download it here: iChingDS

Free to use, but do check back here from time to time to see if there’s an update. Any feedback would be gratefully received.

iChingDS should be pretty easy to use, but here are some instructions anyway …

1. Ask your question and press A to toss the coins. Your coin tosses will be displayed (H/T for Heads/Tails) and the first line of your hexagram will be displayed (in red if it is changing, otherwise in black). The hexagram is built from the bottom.
2. Once you’ve tossed the coins six times, your finished hexagram will display on the top screen, complete with text.
3. Any changing lines will be displayed on the bottom screen. You should pay special attention to these.
4. If your hexagram changes, press L or R (shoulder buttons) to switch display between the two hexagrams, so you can read the text.
5. If you wish to recast the coins for a new reading, press Start.

Still to be implemented: sound, touch screen controls, more information, random dragon backgrounds and any user suggestions.

Edit 12/8/08: Version 0.51 available - contains images of the coins showing whether you’ve tossed heads or tails (rather than plain text).

Here’s an i Ching / Yi Jing / Chinese Book of Changes oracle I made for Nintendo DS. I’m releasing this on 8/8/08 as the number 8 is considered lucky in many Asian countries.

Download it here: iChingDS

Free to use, but do check back here from time to time to see if there’s an update. Any feedback would be gratefully received.

iChingDS should be pretty easy to use, but here are some instructions anyway …

1. Ask your question and press A to toss the coins. Your coin tosses will be displayed (H/T for Heads/Tails) and the first line of your hexagram will be displayed (in red if it is changing, otherwise in black). The hexagram is built from the bottom.
2. Once you’ve tossed the coins six times, your finished hexagram will display on the top screen, complete with text.
3. Any changing lines will be displayed on the bottom screen. You should pay special attention to these.
4. If your hexagram changes, press L or R (shoulder buttons) to switch display between the two hexagrams, so you can read the text.
5. If you wish to recast the coins for a new reading, press Start.

Still to be implemented: sound, touch screen controls, more information, random dragon backgrounds and any user suggestions.

I’ve just started playing Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS, and I have to say, I’m totally blown away. It’s very rarely I feel like this about a game, but if you’re into fast attacking play and gorgeous graphics, get it. It provides far and away the most beautiful graphics on the system. It feels and looks as if you’re playing on a proper console.

Apparently the game’s object oriented rather than procedural, which is weird for an FPS, but definitely works. The control system works really well, using the stylus to move and attack. It’s amazing to control your own little extremely realistic ninja, jumping and rolling and slashing away, with fabulous animations. It’s incredibly fast! And almost perfectly responsive. The particle physics in the attacks are also phenomenally pleasing. The cutscene artwork and music/sounds are beautiful. Anyway, that’s enough from me - I’m getting back to the game :P.

I’ve finally got restarted on my Dr Who Weeping Angels game, based on the episode from last season. The idea is you have to get the key off an angel, then use it to enter the tardis, without being sent into the past by an invisible angel. I was unsure whether to do it as a puzzle or an adventure game, but have gone for a puzzle game, where the character (currently just Sally Sparrow, but it’s impossible to keep an eye on even one angel with just one character) moves a square at a time, as opposed to having free movement. I’ll still try and make it scary though!

I’m using Gamemaker, a freeware games creation software. It’s used a lot in education, including universities, to help people understand the basics of PC games programming. I need to brush up my skills with it as I’m using it on the BND in Media (Games Development) course at the college I work at. As you get your head around programming concepts, you can start to use raw code more and more. I used it with some other students last year and they picked it up really quickly and some of them created great games.

Once I’ve made it in Gamemaker I’ll rewrite it in C for the Nintendo DS. Not sure when it’ll be finished though! Depends how obsessed I get with it!

12 Sept 07 - I’ve got the basic functionality working. Just need to work on the graphics now.

The kids have got me back into Runescape, a fantasy MMPORG written in Java that runs in your browser. It’s free to play, but you can pay around £3.20 a month to become a member if you want to, which gives you tons more world, items, skills and quests.

If you’ve never come across it before, it’s a massive world where you create a character and then go on various adventures. My character is a mage, and can cast spells in combat, to enchant magical items, teleport to various locations or perform alchemy and telekinesis. You can meet up with other people and go on adventures together. You can also - in certain areas - attack other players and get their stuff if they die (pk-ing or player killing).

It’s really good fun - although it’s easy to get obsessed by it! As your player develops you can explore more and more of the world, and pit yourself against higher level enemies, either NPCs (non player characters - ie ones controlled by the computer) or other people’s characters. You can do this in both safe environments (where you don’t lose your stuff if you die) or dangerous ones (where you can lose everything you’re carrying). I recently got killed by a troll general, which I’d defeated, but it respawned and wasted me in two hits while I was checking a quest guide. I was also recently killed by someone when I was braving the wilderness and abyss to craft runes (necessary to cast spells).

My favourite place at the moment is a village in Morytania called Mort’ton, where various shades wander around, and the people have turned into zombies. You can defeat and cremate the shades, which gives you a key to a chest in some nearby tombs. In the chests are various kinds of treasure you can loot.

I’ve recently reached a high enough level in runecrafting and firemaking to make law runes using the balloon transport system from Castle Wars to Entrana, then teleport back to Castle Wars and start again. It’s incredibly fast and is basically a licence to print money!