Whois Proxy using InterNetX as a service provider

May 8th, 2013

Whois Proxy using InterNetX as a service provider

need to integrate a script on your webpage and check if domains (TLDs) are still available?
Then use WhoisPimp, the reworked script that does just that.

The backend is impressive as it covers just about all the TLDs on the market.

Want to see how it works? head on over to here and simply
enter a term that you want to search for. There is no need to enter the TLD. Once it
delivers the results back to the page, you can do things like attach your own order form.

Want the source? you’ve got to choose between a zip file or the GIT-file

.zip here .zip
.git here .git (commit some stuff and feel good about yourself!)

Remember that your IP has to be activated by the service provider for this to work.

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Macbook 2006 vs. Macbook Air 2012

Apr 5th, 2013

Macbook Late 2006
Intel Core 2 Duo T2500 @ 2.00 GHz 1 processor, 2 cores

Geekbench Score 1379

Integer     Processor integer performance     1038
Floating Point     Processor floating point performance     1947
Memory     Memory performance     1160
Stream     Memory bandwidth performance     1023

———————————————————

MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2012)
Intel Core i5-3427U @ 1.80 GHz 1 processor, 2 cores, 4 threads

Geekbench Score 6122

Integer     Processor integer performance     5167
Floating Point     Processor floating point performance     9371
Memory     Memory performance     6269
Stream     Memory bandwidth performance     6345

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Räuberhöhle Etterzhausen

Mar 16th, 2013

image

image

Read more…

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Choons and more Choons

Jan 22nd, 2013

DJ Pery House Mix 77
KG & Genetic Bros – Summer Time
lc brown – uplifting special 5
DJ Nastia Beauty – Spirit Liquid Funk
Evoque – The Breath Of Morning
John B – The Journey (Metrik remix)
Boom-R – relaxing drum & bass part 2
derek sanders – kinetic elysium
Flame – Lush Stuff Podcast 1
Makoto & Deeizm – Stop
Parhelia – Luminosity(stunna remix)
cryo & uzhas – waterfalls
The Burbs – Cool Air
Pete Rann – Embrace the Feeling
Artificial Intelligence – Blind Eye(Featuring DRS)
JMJ / Richie – Free La Funk (PFM Remix)
Emily Underhill – Lost in Me (Rameses B Remix)
Dementia & Nme Click – Always on my mind
zubes – change your mind
metrik – I see you (feat. Kathy Brown)
Miusha – Out of Min (Implex and Spherique remix)
centrik & grimm – don’t wanna do this
EBK – Powder People
Rowpieces – Abandon
Technicoulour & Komatic – Launch Sequence
ATP – Hey There (Enea Remix)
Nuage – Cold Memories
Mutated Forms – Glory Days(Never Again)(netsky remix)
CLS – With No Light to Guide My Way
Bionic1 – Bump & Grind
Marcus Intalex & ST Files – How You Make Me Feel
Mr. Joseph – Forever Weekend(featuring: Kate White)
L Plus – Taking Me Higher
BHX – She Says
Emeli Sande – Heaven(Nu:Tone Remix)
Kubiks & Lomax – Twenty Four
Svyatoslav Maltsev – Wait Until the End (roman sokolovsky remix)
Oza – Small Planet (original mix)
Lange featuring Emma Hewitt – Live Forever(mat zo remix)
Golden Coast – Ivory(club mix)
Plan B – The Recluse (Netsky Remix)
Rowpieces – Abandon
nem foxter – the third step
London Elektricity – Bells In My Head (featuring Elsa Esmeralda)
Vortex Involute – Essential #dnb #music
Dopedemand -Sixty Four Days #dnb #music #neat
Utah Jazz – Cloud Nine #dnb #music
Terravita – Sex Lobster #dnb #choon #music #bangin
Hazem Baltagui – Joyful Sadness(TwoThirds Remix) #dnb #music
Hobzee & Zyon Base – Sad Song #dnb #music #nice
Usb – Habitat (231 heads tuned) #dnb #music
Dave202 – Coming Home (paul webster remix) #music #choon #trance
Enea – Touchin’ You #dnb #music
Julie Thompson – Shine (jpl and george hales radio edit) #music #trance #nice
Oliver Smith – Chordplay(club mix) #music #trance #dreamy
L.A.O.S. – Something In The Air #dnb #choon #music
DB Breaks – Fever (featuring Cat Knight) #dnb #music
B4sstee – Because We Can #dnb #choon #music
Grafix – Let Go #dnb #choon #awesome #wow #music
Hiroyui Oda – Thirty (kiwamu remix) #music #trance
L.A.O.S. – Everything #dnb #music
Baby D – Let me be your Fantasy (J Magic & Wickaman remix) #choon #dnb #music
Aaron Bond – Default Error #dnb #music #smooth
nCamargo – Feel So Good #dnb #music #smooth #nice
JayB – Seamless Integration(radio edit) #trance #music
Alicia Keys Unthinkable (Lenzman Remix) #dnb #soul #music
Pendulum – Witchcraft (Netsky Remix) #dnb #music
Evgeny BarDyuzha – Changeful World(airwave remix) #music #trance
David Forber and Alan Nimmo – Samui #music #trance
Moonpax vs. Snatt and Vix with Xspective Sense – Disco Terra(original mix) #trance #music
Myon and Shane54 featuring Labworks – Ibiza Sunrise #music #trance
System F – Out of the Blue 2010 (guiseppe ottaviani remix) #music #trance
Vicky Wood – The Mystique Sessions Vol. IV
Rakielis – S2 #music #trance
Mutated Forms – Glory Days(Never Again) (Netsky Remix) #music #dnb
Bionic1 – Frozen Liquid #music #dnb
Logistics – Timelapse #music #dnb
James Talk & Ridney – Forever(Featurecast Remix) #dnb #music #choon
Serial Killaz – Worries in the Dance – Revival Mix #dnb #music
Taxman – Three – Original Mix #dnb #music
Apex – By The Way #dnb #music
calvin harris – ready for the weekend (high contrast remix) #dnb
Wild and Perfect Day (Extended Mix) – Rank 1, Jochen Miller feat. Sarah Bettens #trance #music #choon
Potential Badboy – I Choose You #dnb #music
JayB – Leopard(radio edit) #trance #music
M.I.K.E. – Unity(NYC Nights Theme 2010) #trance #music
Hiroyuki ODA – Thirty(kiwamu remix) #trance #music 10/10
Gemini – Without you #dnb #music #choon
Camo, Krooked – Breezeblock (Original Mix) #dnb #choon #music
4 Strings – Sundown #trance #music
Paimon – Berry Jam #dnb #music
Makoto – And I Love Her #dnb #music
CLS – With No Light To Guide My Way #dnb #music
Sobersoul – Together #dnb #music
Vale – Diversion 06 (Celebration Mix) #techno #music #bangin
Mage – Just Say’s A (Dk Foyer Remix) #dnb #music
Goldie – Freedom featuring Natalie Duncan (Original Mix) #dnb #music
Chris SU – Solaris VIP #dnb #music
Contour – Shine #dnb #music
Channel 2 & Noble vs. Nas #dnb #music
Shimon and Sparfunk – In the Shine #dnb #choon #music holy crap this is a good track
muffler – falling 2009 #dnb #music #choon
Blu Mar Ten – Headhunter #dnb #music #choon
Mr. Pit – Overload (original mix) #trance #music
DJ Sync – Final Destination #trance
DC Breaks – Mankind #dnb #music
Mike Shiver and Aruna – Everywhere You Are (duderstadt vocal mix) #trance #music
the week – music – Lovebirds – Green (I Feel This Mix) #dnb #chill #music
olaf jedruszek – Indian Summer #trance #music
Nookie – Only You (Soultec Remix) #dnb #music #choon
Derrick & Tonika – Nowadays #dnb #music
Hive – Neo #dnb #music
Komatic & Technicolour – Dickinson’s Radio #dnb #music
Makoto & Greg Packer – Heatwave #dnb #music
John Askew – Black Out (Simon Patterson remix) #trance #music
GPK – Monsters – Nightwalker Remix #dnb #music #sofreakinhard
phors – new horizon #dnb #music
Lenzmann – Sugar Hill #dnb #music
Dave and Oliver – F1 (thr3shold remix) #trance #music
Fracture Design – Summer Rain #dnb #music
Matt Everson – Heist Manoeuvre (nick sentience remix) #trance #music
L.A.O.S – Everything #dnb #music
Logistics – Crystal Skies #dnb #music
Tokyo Prose – Reach #dnb #music
Andrew World – Summer Rain (Nookie Remix) #dnb #music #smooth #quietstorm
Probspot – Midnight #trance #music #choon
Evgeny Bardyuzha – Changeful World (airwave remix) #trance #music
Juventa – For That Special Girl #trance #music
DJ Ex:L Trance X-mix June 2012 #trance #music #wtf-mix #awesome
Konichi – Fade To Black (Original Mix) #dnb #music
Skytech – Comet (sonic division and skytech remix) #trance #music
DJ FX – Project C.A.D.M.U.S. #trance #music
Agent X – Fallin (featuring Mitya and Ultra)(Shock One Mix) #dnb #music
Vital Elements – Magic Numbers #dnb #music #choon
Elly Summer – Elly Summer – Drum N Bass Session 04 #wow #dnb so dirty.
Electrosoul System – This Love Can Be Real #dnb #music
Technimatic – The Golden Section #dnb #music
Genetic Bros. Uplifting #dnb #music
Sly One vs. Jurrance – April 2011 #trance #music
JMJ & Richie – Free La Funk – PFM Remix #dnb #music
L-Ectric – End Of Life For All – Original Mix #dnb #music
Super8 and Tab – March 2011 1-hour Promo Mix #trance #music
Cressida feat. Roxanne Barton – Heart On My Sleeve (Kyau & Albert Remix) #trance #music
Sonic Element – Away Without You (Original Mix) #trance #music
Maduk – Avalon #dnb #music
Blake Reary – Nowhere Near(Advisory Remix) #dnb #music
Wild and Perfect Day (Extended Mix) – Rank 1, Jochen Miller feat. Sarah Bettens #trance #music
Optical – To Shape The Future Remix #dnb #music
Lange featuring Emma Hewitt – Live Forever (mat zo remix) #trance #music
Audien – People Do Not Change (audien and shawn mitiska revamp) #trance #music
Suspect 44 – Japanese Schoolgirls (proff remix) #trance #music #choon
Johnny Yono – Suspended Dimension (mehilove remix) #trance #music #w00t
Nerramus – Destructive Sound #trance #music
Everlight – Colours (cressida remix) #trance #music
Ferrin & Morris & Sequentia – Polarity (Original Mix) #trance #music
Redstar – The Problem (Falcon’s Solution Mix) #trance #music
Peshay – Jazz Cafe #dnb #music
Mattix & Futile – Corkscrew #dnb #music
Stunna – Aquarius #dnb #music #sogood
Kaleb – Dusty Blinds #dnb #music
Mike Shiver and Aruna – Everywhere You Are (Duderstadt vocal mix) #trance #music
Agent X – Fallin (featuring Mitya & Ultra) (Shock One Mix) #dnb #music
Fracture Design – Summer Rain #dnb #music
Paul Webster – Corruption #trance #music
Static Blue and Oliver P – Crimson Skies (akesson remix) #trance #music
Relay & Front – Pictures of You (VIP Mix) #dnb #trance #choon
Julian Vincent featuring Cathy Burton – No End (m6 vs. re:locate remix) #trance #music
N-Key presents – Blu Planet Series 25 Kyoto CD1 #trance #music #choons
Solis – Believe Me (meridian remix) #trance #music
Lovebirds – Green (I Feel This Mix) #dnb #chill #music

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Change PHP Memory Limit in Servers running Plesk 11

Jan 11th, 2013

If you want to change the php memory limit for a domain running on a Plesk 11 server, go to:

/var/www/vhosts/(DOMAINNAME)/conf/siteapp.d/main.conf

and then restart the webserver.

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Jade Konoichi Ep.1 Review (XBOX Indie Games, 80MSP)

Dec 11th, 2012

SAMSUNG

Jade Konoichi is the latest title by Daydalus Studios, creators of Platform Hack.  This game belongs in the “run to the right and try not to die genre”.

The visual style is sort of a japanese cute-em-up and works well for this game.  The levels are what seems randomly generated so every run will be different. Elements of the level sometimes seem a bit out of place button to the point of really mattering.
You switch up weapons without he shoulder buttons and activate items with the X button.  The sound is not that noticeable and honestly not that important for a game like this.

Your main goal to to collect butterflies in order to get points. Your enemies are wasps, some kind of thing on the ground and pitfalls. Lots of pitfalls. When you die you can visit a shop and but items which can also be found while  playing normally.  Without items you’re not going to get any high scores so you have to wisely decide which items and how many
of them to buy.  I went with the speed-up, magnet and fairy thing which after about 150 or so “runs” got me a score of 26,500.

I don’t know how far the game goes or if anything else happens but I think it’s probably just a high-score game.

Here is what I liked:

-the controls respond well
-no blinking graphics like in the last title
-a shop/upgrade system in a game like this is neat and adds a certain strategic angle to it
-easy to pick up and play even for people who don’t have a lot of time

This is what I didn’t like:

-due to technical limitations of XBLIG no online leaderboards(well possible but which
developer would want to keep a host machine running 24/7?)

-falling through the the floor or platforms unexpectedly

And this is what I would change to make it more fun:

-be able to jump down from platforms
-double jump
-be able to duck
-better explanation of the game mechanics

I have several of these types of games on different platforms and most of them get boring quite quickly.  In Jade Konoichi however, it draws you in and keeps you playing because of the randomness of the levels and upgrade system. Is it fun? yeah.
Is it perfect? no, but pretty close. Should you buy it?  Yes because it is a genuine attempt at making a game.

Go here to check out Daydalus Studios

Score: 80 out of 100

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Open Office on Mac OS X – Startup Crash – fix

Sep 25th, 2012

Problem: Open Office on Mac OS X instantly crashes upon startup with
a pop-up windows that you can’t click away.

Solution:

-delete the Library/Application Support/OpenOffice folder completely
- use the task manager to close the running application
- open Open Office and click on cancel in the welcome screen. Do this
to get rid of the pop-up window.
- right-click on the launcher and close Open Office
- Open Open Office and

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Song of the Year – Heatbeat – Roses Never Cry

Sep 14th, 2012

Heatbeat – Roses Never Cry   :)    too good.

 

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Dust: An Elysian Tail Infinite Money Glitch

Aug 27th, 2012

Start off by grinding/collecting money to so that you have enough cash to buy at least 256 material items – for example the scrap item. There is programming error present that stops counting at 255 so if you sell 256 items, the money is added to your account but the items remain in your inventory. This also works with the numbers, 512, 768, 1024, 2048 and 4096 and so on.

Just keep buying as many item as you can so that you can start the process with more expensive items. Since the shop keeps on buying all your items, you can just buy all the items directly without ever running out.

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Tunes and more tunes

Aug 22nd, 2012

4 Strings – Sundown #trance #music
Aaron Bond – Default Error #dnb #music #smooth
Alicia Keys Unthinkable (Lenzman Remix) #dnb #soul #music
Apex – By The Way #dnb #music
Artificial Intelligence – Blind Eye(Featuring DRS)
ATP – Hey There (Enea Remix)
B4sstee – Because We Can #dnb #choon #music
Baby D – Let me be your Fantasy (J Magic & Wickaman remix) #choon #dnb #music
BHX – She Says
Bionic1 – Bump & Grind
Bionic1 – Frozen Liquid #music #dnb
Blu Mar Tem – Headhunter #dnb #music #choon
Boom-R – relaxing drum & bass part 2
calvin harris – ready for the weekend (high contrast remix) #dnb
Camo, Krooked – Breezeblock (Original Mix) #dnb #choon #music
centrik & grimm – don’t wanna do this
Channel 2 & Noble vs. Nas #dnb #music
Chris SU – Solaris VIP #dnb #music
CLS – With No Light to Guide My Way
CLS – With No Light To Guide My Way #dnb #music
Contour – Shine #dnb #music
cryo & uzhas – waterfalls
Dave202 – Coming Home (paul webster remix) #music #choon #trance
David Forber and Alan Nimmo – Samui #music #trance
DB Breaks – Fever (featuring Cat Knight) #dnb #music
Dementia & Nme Click – Always on my mind
derek sanders – kinetic elysium
DJ Nastia Beauty – Spirit Liquid Funk
DJ Pery House Mix 77
Dopedemand -Sixty Four Days #dnb #music #neat
EBK – Powder People
Emeli Sande – Heaven(Nu:Tone Remix)
Emily Underhill – Lost in Me (Rameses B Remix)
Enea – Touchin’ You #dnb #music
Evgeny BarDyuzha – Changeful World(airwave remix) #music #trance
Evoque – The Breath Of Morning
Flame – Lush Stuff Podcast 1
Gemini – Without you #dnb #music #choon
Golden Coast – Ivory(club mix)
Goldie – Freedom featuring Natalie Duncan (Original Mix) #dnb #music
Grafix – Let Go #dnb #choon #awesome #wow #music
Hazem Baltagui – Joyful Sadness(TwoThirds Remix) #dnb #music
Hiroyui Oda – Thirty (kiwamu remix) #music #trance
Hiroyuki ODA – Thirty(kiwamu remix) #trance #music 10/10
Hobzee & Zyon Base – Sad Song #dnb #music #nice
James Talk & Ridney – Forever(Featurecast Remix) #dnb #music #choon
JayB – Leopard(radio edit) #trance #music
JayB – Seamless Integration(radio edit) #trance #music
JMJ / Richie – Free La Funk (PFM Remix)
John B – The Journey (Metrik remix)
Julie Thompson – Shine (jpl and george hales radio edit) #music #trance #nice
KG & Genetic Bros – Summer Time
Kubiks & Lomax – Twenty Four
L Plus – Taking Me Higher
L.A.O.S. – Everything #dnb #music
L.A.O.S. – Something In The Air #dnb #choon #music
Lange featuring Emma Hewitt – Live Forever(mat zo remix)
lc brown – upliftung special 5
Logistics – Timelapse #music #dnb
London Elektricity – Bells In My Head (featuring Elsa Esmeralda)
M.I.K.E. – Unity(NYC Nights Theme 2010) #trance #music
Mage – Just Say’s A (Dk Foyer Remix) #dnb #music
Makoto – And I Love Her #dnb #music
Makoto & Deeizm – Stop
Marcus Intalex & ST Files – How You Make Me Feel
metrik – I see you (feat. Kathy Brown)
Miusha – Out of Min (Implex and Spherique remix)
Moonpax vs. Snatt and Vix with Xspective Sense – Disco Terra(original mix) #trance #music
Mr. Joseph – Forever Weekend(featuring: Kate White)
muffler – falling 2009 #dnb #music #choon
Mutated Forms – Glory Days(Never Again) (Netsky Remix) #music #dnb
Mutated Forms – Glory Days(Never Again)(netsky remix)
Myon and Shane54 featuring Labworks – Ibiza Sunrise #music #trance
nCamargo – Feel So Good #dnb #music #smooth #nice
nem foxter – the third step
Nuage – Cold Memories
Oliver Smith – Chordplay(club mix) #music #trance #dreamy
Oza – Small Planet (original mix)
Paimon – Berry Jam #dnb #music
Parhelia – Luminosity(stunna remix)
Pendulum – Witchcraft (Netsky Remix) #dnb #music
Pete Rann – Embrace the Feeling
Plan B – The Recluse (Netsky Remix)
Potential Badboy – I Choose You #dnb #music
Rakielis – S2 #music #trance
Rowpieces – Abandon
Rowpieces – Abandon
Serial Killaz – Worries in the Dance – Revival Mix #dnb #music
Shimon and Sparfunk – In the Shine #dnb #choon #music holy crap this is a good track
Sobersoul – Together #dnb #music
Svyatoslav Maltsev – Wait Until the End (roman sokolovsky remix)
System F – Out of the Blue 2010 (guiseppe ottaviani remix) #music #trance
Taxman – Three – Original Mix #dnb #music
Technicoulour & Komatic -  Launch Sequence
Terravita – Sex Lobster #dnb #choon #music #bangin
The Burbs – Cool Air
Usb – Habitat (231 heads tuned) #dnb #music
Utah Jazz – Cloud Nine #dnb #music
Vale – Diversion 06 (Celebration Mix) #techno #music #bangin
Vicky Wood – The Mystique Sessions Vol. IV
Vortex Involute – Essential #dnb #music
Wild and Perfect Day (Extended Mix) – Rank 1, Jochen Miller feat. Sarah Bettens #trance #music #choon
zubes – change your mind

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Nano Doc Review (80 MS Points – Xbox Live Indie Game)

Jul 24th, 2012

Description:

You fly / float? a nano robot with a claw in an infected host and shoot evil cells to kill them.
Alternative description: color-switching-wave-claw-bullet-hell-shmup. It’s the best I could come up with.

Gameplay and Control: You basically switch up between shooting color-coded enemies in a wave-like manner and using the claw to collect power-up items. You use the four face buttons to change the color of your weapon and the trigger buttons to operate the claw. As you progress, you’ll be doing a lot of color switching and claw-grabbing. There’s no D-pad support for us old gamers but the analog sticks work alright.

The game starts on the somewhat slow side as it tries to explain stuff in a tutorial at the
bottom of the screen. The problem here is that this information needs to be put into its own
help menu on one screen if possible. I expected a normal shmup and the first few minutes
were confusing because there was stuff happening on the screen and I could not figure out what I was supposed to do with the claw.

There are big red cells which are power-ups and white things that can either charge up
your weapon or be used as a bomb. There is a certain risk/reward factor for carrying
an item with you – you will end up having to do this in later levels as there is just too much
stuff on the screen to get hit by. Using bombs didn’t work well for me – in later level though
you will more or less have to use them to stand any chance.

The game picks up speed after a few levels and this is where you’ll have an “aha” moment and understand the use of the claw: once the enemies start spitting out tons of projectiles the (almost) only way to grab a power-up is with the use of the claw.

Once you destroy a certain amount of bad cells a boss appears. The bosses vary up
between just switching up the color which is needed to destroy them and using more complex movements and/or a combination of both. Usually when a boss appears you probably have just destroyed a bunch of differently-colored cells with some of them still remaining on the screen – this makes unloading bullets into the boss as soon as he appears difficult the first few seconds. Some of the bosses move into the corners while there are satelite things floating around the boss – I could not really dodge this attack pattern but by always keeping a power-up in hand it was manageable.

There is a upgrade-system in place which is a bit lopsided – you can upgrade stuff on the ship but you can max this out pretty fast. Once I realized I could just replay earlier levels to
get more money for upgrades I did just that. The only thing that you loose if you die are
the additional mini-ships? that fly around you. The upgrade system could be expanded a bit to make it harder to get the items.

The enemies could be a bit more varied especially since they are degraded into one of four color groups – stuff like breakable scenery is not present at all.

Graphics: It starts off with a nice cutscene and ends up at a crisp title screen. The sprites
are average, the backgrounds interesting. What I did not like was that if you continue it shows a different background. It made me think that the content is randomly generated when it is not. There is no sense of depth or graphic effect that makes you feel like you are in a human body – surely this can be made a bit better.

The cut scenes would be great if they show up between levels (or every few levels) in order to build up the story. Overall the visual image of floating around is a body shooting cells is average.

Sound: The intro music is too quiet. The in game music is your normal space shooter techno music but it is not bad and fits the title. The sound effects are a mixed bag – some fitting and some not with at least one sound effect recycled from a previous title(am I right?). The claw sound gets repetitive after a while. More organic sounds are needed.

Replayability: I kept on playing. Especially once I got to level 15 where I got 0wned until
I figured out why there are bombs in the game. But I still died. Again and again. But I kept playing for quite some time because shmups are my kind of game.

What this title needs is not only more levels but more game modes or some kind of switching up between a horizontal and vertical shmup. The addition of difficulty levels is not needed but the difficulty curve needs some serious adjusting.

Let’s say I finish the game – what else is there to do? do I hunt a high score or can I unlock secret stuff?

Potential: I liked the fact that it was a new and strange combination of game mechanics that somehow worked once you figure out what to do. The difficulty shoots up very quickly around level (patient) 15 and I really did try to beat that level for 5 days straight(I failed, I must be old). With more levels and a better difficulty curve the potential is high for
a strange yet fun game.

PROs
-strange combination of game mechanics that work
-it keeps you playing

CONs
-difficulty curve
-random backgrounds

TOTAL 7 of 10

Graphics: 6
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 7
Replayability: 7
Potential: 8

Check out Nano Doc here:Daydalus Studios and also give Platform Hack a try.

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Prophete REX 28″ Bike

May 27th, 2012

so awesome :p

bike

Prophete REX 28" Bike

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Cool Flash Game: Symon

May 27th, 2012


Symon a strange point-and-click game, give it a try!

Symon.

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Casino Cat

Apr 7th, 2012

image

Casino Cat

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Bubble Tea

Apr 5th, 2012

image

Touch OSC Settings – Android to OSX for Reason

Mar 25th, 2012

Touch OSC Settings – Android to OSX for Reason


Touch OSC App on Mobile Phone:

Connections: 192.168.2.3:5004

(Port Outgoing: 8000  Port Incoming: 9000  Local IP 192.168.2.5)

MIDI Bridge: 192.168.2.3 (should find your local hostname)


 

Touch OSC Bridge App on Desktop

Start Touch OSC Bridge


Reason App on Desktop:

Preferences -> Advanced Control -> External Control Bus: Touch OSC Bridge

MIDI Clock Sync:  TouchOSC Bridge

Preferences -> Keyboards and Control Surfaces -> “Other” Midi Control Keyboard
-> MIDI-Input: Touch OSC

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A Voxel Action (80 MSFT Points) Quick Review

Feb 6th, 2012

 

Imagine a mario clone with voxels.  Now add a tilt-camera and seemingly never-ending
level and you’ve got A Voxel Action.

Graphics:   neat & gets the job done, could use more variety though.

Sound:  a lowpoint in the game – there isn’t any except for some basic sounds effects

Gameplay: Pretty cool but the special abilities that you gain are not used very much. At
the core you’ve got a platformer. The game would like to be an adventure but fails to
introduce new fresh concepts along the way.  The control was alright except for the borked
ice-blocks. Took me right under 2 hours to finish.

Replayability: just a bit.  Needs to be much larger with more things to do. The connected level
design has some drawbacks for example: falling off a ledge and spending five minutes
climbing back up.

Potential:  this could be a favorite but it needs way more stuff to do. There is also
nothing to break up the action once in a while. Overall good design and implementation.

Special Note: I liked this game even if it is receiving a somewhat low score.

Graphics 7
Sound 1
Gameplay 7
Replayability 4
Potential 8
——————-
54 out of 100

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Times of change

Feb 3rd, 2012

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Escape Goat Review (Xbox Indie Games 240 MS Points)

Nov 9th, 2011

It doesn’t happen often but every blue moon a XBLIG title pops up that gets back to the roots
of gaming.

In this 2D title inspired loosely by Adventures of Lolo(Eggerland series in Japan) and maybe a
bit of Chew-Man-Fu(PC Engine) your goal is to figure out how to escape the castle with your goat
by pressing switches to move the scenery or to cause chain reactions which in turn opens the door.

Graphics: Retro-like graphics that look like they are tile-based. Fitting color schemes highlight
the different stages. The various effects like explosions or moving blocks have a slight hint of
modern trickery to them but do not clash with the rest of the imagery. The simple animation on the
goat actually helps here because making it any more fluid would break the overall feel of
everything.

Sound: It has that professional synth feeling to it and immediately takes you back to those
great japanese games from the late 80′s and early 90′s. Just getting that part right is
difficult if you don’t have the original instruments and are trying to create this
with modern music composition software. The tunes stick out and are memorable enough to get
one to hum them along even long after the game has been turned off. It is just so great
to not hear the same songs from the usual royalty-free websites for a change.

Gameplay: On your side you have your trusty mouse which can climb up walls/stick to platforms or
squeeze through tight spaces. In order to get the main character into certain places you have to
find a magic hat that lets you switch places with the mouse. Your goat can run, jump, double-jump
and dash. Sounds simple but more is not needed for this action puzzle game.

What is there to like about the gameplay? It actually makes you think! Some of the puzzles really
are tricky and a few of them have multiple solutions. It is usually clear what you have to do but
in the later levels you have to take your time to study the possible effects(I’m looking at you
Final Level 8 of 10!). There are also a few welcome aha! moments.

The goat responds as expected and moves pixel perfect. I actually sat there trying to figure out
if the goat would fall off edges if I move him millimeters at a time. Throwing the mouse / getting
it attached to the wall can be figured out after a few tries – sometimes it ran in the wrong
direction but with the press of the B button that is solved. The collision detection is also great
so you can’t blame neither the control scheme/response time nor the enemies/traps when you die.

Replayability: Some. There is an editor to create levels but without the ability to share the levels
it may not be very useful for the average joe. Designing levels is easy but to get a really
good puzzle going you have to spend quite a bit of time.

I think speed running through the game / trying to beat it with the fewest deaths adds to the
replayability.

Potential: There is a lot of potential here – by adding just a few new elements / objects a ton
of clever puzzles can be created. Serious programmers make level editors and this game has one. Now if there would be a way to share levels it could extend the gameplay quite a bit but then at the same time adding this feature would create a quality control problem. I think the best solution would be to offer a PC version where people can upload/share their levels and the best ones are included in a sequel.

In closing, I would not really change anything about Escape Goat except add more levels or make
it a bit more difficult. These are the type of games that a whole generation grew up on
and finding this on XBLIG made my week.

Graphics 9
Sound 10
Gameplay 9
Replayability 8
Potential 9

TOTAL 9 of 10
Go check out Escape Goat and other wonderful titles by Magical Time Bean HERE

250 of those deaths were from the Final Level 8 of 10 :)

250 of those deaths were from the Final Level 8 of 10 :)

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Platform Hack Review (Xbox Indie Games / 80 MSFT Points)

Oct 24th, 2011

“I really hate doing this” sums up this review. Why? to give you an idea why you need to know the backstory: I’ve literally played thousands of games. No really
you name it – chances are I’ve given it a try. I enjoy difficult games of all kinds such as Ninja Gaiden & Sigma series, Super Meat Boy and platformers / action titles set to
make you pull your hair out. Metroid series? been there, speed-run through that. I know Super Metroid better than the back of my hand.

As far as XBLIG games go most of them are terrible or “meh”. So when a title pops up offering platforming, shooting/fighting all in one package my brain says give it a try and spend the MS Points. Was Platform Hack a good choice? Read on to find out.

Platform Hack puts you in the role of a hero which can swing a sword, shoot a gun, use a grapple-beam and utilizes a shield. The game has a weapons upgrade system which gives you abilities you need to complete some levels. A short story is told in the beginning but I skipped that and went through the first 2 levels. The game passed my 60 seconds test which is a test that consists of me trying to figure everything out without looking at any instructions – if it passes that and I was able to figure out what I’m supposed to do, more likely than not I’ll buy it.

After playing the demo / buying the game I immediately visited the developers website and read the whole thing from beginning to end. The game is supposed to be similar to Super Metroid mixed with a bit more platforming. The developer documented the creation of most parts of the game, describing algorithms and programming tricks and all the geeky stuff we love. Code was shared and things explained so that everything is understandable.

The next day I decided to actually play the game more than a few minutes and started discovering things that now end up in this review.

Graphics: functional is the word. The enemies/character and the foreground are fine, the background is a pixelated mess. The textures (tiles?) don’t line up in some areas. The menus are cool and the map screen is welcome(found it by pure luck). The enemy animation is average but gets the job done. The main character needs more animation and needs to face the direction that he is running in, not towards the person playing the game. An idle animation for the main character would not hurt either. What really sucked is that the graphics except for the enemies lack any style. There is nothing to break up the repetitiveness and no feeling of immersion. Thinking back to 16-bit days, a few layers of parallax scrolling would make the whole thing more enjoyable. Throw in some random scenery stuff and don’t make the thing look so flat. The healthbars are too freaking huge and the mini-map/radar thing is not very useful.

Sound: Some type of freebies from the usual community pages. The music actually fits the game but the sound effects are terrible. The trumpet sound at the end of each level doesn’t belong in any video game. I also did not notice many enemy sounds except when you shoot them.

Gameplay: this is what it is all about – does it hold up in this department? The answer is yes to a point. It controls fine – maybe not as good as some japanese titles but the
usual mechanics work. You shoot stuff. Then you jump around some platforms and shoot some more. Rinse and repeat – though this is not always a bad thing. Standing in front of a wall and jumping straight up makes you jump backwards unexpectedly – and no this was not the wall jump kicking in. I like the fact that you can swing a sword and shoot a gun with a press of a button. You can’t however rapidly switch up between the two because the animations would not start that quickly.

You earn purple points by killing enemies and these in turn level you up. Level up and receive some points which unlock things such as double health, high jump or the rapid fire spread gun. The enemies range from simple monsters to somewhat larger dragons – oh and there are end bosses. If you take your time none of the situations should be difficult even when there are spots that have like ten enemies on the screen. The first end boss you can just button mash through more or less. I actually had more trouble in those spots with the dragons and birds. Health automatically regenerates. The level layouts are decent but some spots are tricky – good that you can look around with the second analog stick.

Replayability: at this point in time not much. There is so much room for improvement that I can’t even think of anything. Anything really.

Potential: The reason that I mentioned the developers website in the beginning is because the game engine is solid. There are different kinds of attacks and the game plays like
you would expect it to. Things don’t go too crazy, the collision detection is okay and the character is not jumping through walls. The game has menu screens and those little extras you expect. But this is where it ends.

The accomplishment is therefore the game engine but not the content.

A bit more fine tuning with more stuff to do(replayability) is what this title needs. The game has potential because as soon as the right content/artwork is created and bugs squashed(WTF random doors in walls after boss fight and you can’t exit) you would have a game of value.

I rage quit the game on The Tunnels level.

Why? The grappling beam is broken broken broken and you can’t predict what will happen when you use it. No really we sat here together 2 hours and no one was able to not only finish the level, we could not get the grappling beam to work as intended – this is absolutely nothing like Super Metroid because in Metroid if you hold the button you stick to the ceiling. In Platform Hack it randomly makes you fall and if you do stick it pushes you to the floor/makes the rope longer. To make matters worse you spend 2 minutes getting to the spot where you need to go only to die. My death count on Super Meat Boy (please look it up) on my first playthrough was 13,996 deaths – I don’t give up that easily. I nearly threw my TV out the window but I beat that game. I can’t beat this game because an essential mechanic broken.

This screen makes me angry:

this is a fail.

Conclusion: A game that could be great that is held back by the content available and some bugs that break the game. I do want to see more titles from this developer but think that it would be wiser to perfect what is already a good engine – better than most titles on the XBLIG service. Give me a game that controls like Super Metroid and everything else I can turn a blind eye to. Give me a game that has not really been play tested / makes me rage quit and we come back to the first sentence in this review.

Graphics: 5
Sound: 3
Gameplay: 8
Replayability:5
Potential: 10
—————
TOTAL 62 of 100

I would have given it a 80 if the grappling-beam would work :)

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