Another bundle of indie games has launched. This bundle includes Sanctum, a tower defense FPS, A.R.E.S extinction agenda, Gemini Rue, and Nimbus.

The price for the bundle changes as purchases are made, with high purchases knocking the price down for everyone.

You can view the bundle here.

UPDATE: 20,000 bundles sold, so two DLC packs are now available in the Bundle! If you’ve already purchased, they should show up on the keys page in 24hrs. Another DLC pack will be released at 70,000 sales.

First round of the Zenimax vs. Mojang case ended today in Mojang’s favor. Notch tweeted this eariler: “We won the interim injunction! We can keep using the name “Scrolls”. ZeniMax/Bethesda can still appeal the ruling, but I’m very happy. ” viaTwitter, followed quickly by Jahkob‘s comment: “The swedish courts seem to work! Scrolls, shall continue to be named Scrolls!”

Hopefully, this will be the  end of it. Scrolls is due to be shown to the public at MineCon next month.

You can download this pre-release from here. This includes the long awaited End, a new realm totally populated by Enderman (and Dragons, but not is this release, unless you have the edited class files) with obsidian towers dominating the landscape.

The are also a few nice visual effects, such as lava droplets leaking through blocks, to make you aware that a lava source is above you.

Enjoy this new pre-relase!

Apple recently released iOS version 5 for the iPhone 3/3GS/4, iPad 1&2, and iPod Touch 3G/4G. This update brings many UI changes, including a notifications area, which can be accessed by swiping from the top of the screen (similar to an android device). It also enables access to iCloud, a service which allows you to automatically synchronize music, pictures, documents, and many other things between your iDevices.

As of this update, you can also sync your Idevices over WiFi, in case you’re like me and are too lazy to keep finding the stupid $20 cable.

Overall, iOS 5 is a great (and arguably much needed) update for Apple’s portable devices.

Just finished editing the next level’s video, Enjoy!

If you like Subscribe, leave Comments!

You can download the map here. Requires Industry Craft.

Been a long time sense I’ve done a IOS review, so I am going to review a few games I’ve been playing on Ipod Touch over the last month. First up, Dragonvale!

Dragonvale

Dragonvale is a clone of Farmvile/Cityvile for IOS devices. It has you running a theme park to show off the dragons you are maturing. Older dragons earn money faster, allowing you to expand your park. You start on a small island, where you must clear an area to begin building up your park. Using gems will hasten the building process, while using food on your dragons will make them mature.

This game is extremely addictive, especially because it is free to play, with features where you can trade real life money for gold, gems, or food. Unfortunately, Dragonvale requires a Internet connection to play, somewhat spoiling the experience.

The Heist

The Heist is a puzzle game with a twist. Each puzzle you solve gets you closer to the treasure inside the vault. There are 4 different types of puzzles, from sudoku with symbols, pipe puzzles, block pushing, and finally unblocking an area.

The Heist is an extremely well polished game, and will set you back $1.99 on the App Store.

Super Fly HD

Super Fly HD is a side scrolling beat-em up type of game. You control the hero, Super Fly (cause all flies dream of being super), and try to keep him alive for as long as possible. Every kill earns you coins, which you can spend to upgrade your weapons (swords, guns, etc.) and gear.

Super Fly HD is currently free on the app store, so pick it up quick!

Well, that ends this roundup, leave comments and questions below.

Here’s a little something I whipped together. The 1st Level of Doom 2 in Minecraft! Kudos to dyljaybaker for the inital map design!

Here’s a video of a TNT session we did for testing how the 1.8 Minecraft server handles lots of TNT.

Turns out it handles it a lot better than it used to!

Diablo III looks good (despite what I’ve heard about it’s graphic style and WoW like image) and I must say I am eager to get my hands on a copy for both my wife and myself. Let’s be honest, there is nothing quite like sitting down to an intense dungeon crawl and clickspam stealing all the health potions while your spouse (or girlfriend) rages in the other room. There is one small hitch, I won’t be buying Diablo 3.

During the June of 2000 I picked up my copy of Diablo II after work, from there I ran home and installed it. While it was installing on my Cyrix 266, Nvidia TNT2 powered system I was on the phone to my work colleague who had likewise done the same. I played Diablo II for about 50 hours, before I slept. This isn’t some kind of geek fantasy exaggeration, these where the gaming sessions we were involved in. I can’t remember if I called in sick for work or if it was a weekend, those kind of details faded into the background as I drove my vicious Necromancer towards Diablo himself. That is what you might call emotional heritage. Memories of a time where nothing else mattered and Diablo II engulfed our imaginations, and our lives.

In 1997 I paid $4 for a floppy disk copy of the Diablo demo. That was my pocket money, and it was $4 well spent. Four of us sat huddled around a Pentium 75 watching that interlaced intro with avid anticipation. I can only remember the name of one of my companions that day and I haven’t seen him in over a decade and yet that moment lives vividly in my mind. I lived in a boarding college at that time and we had had to find a way to hack the computer security system so we could sneak down after lights out and play games on the provided study computers. They were years out of date but Diablo would sluggishly load and play. This kind of emotional heritage stems back to a time when I held computer game companies as deities. This was all long before World of Warcraft, long before the Distribution conglomerates of today’s sordid and hedonistic games industry. My love of Blizzard stems from a fantasy time generated in the head of an adolescent who’s only love was computer games. I loved Diablo and it loved me in return, faithfully we shared our relationship for over a decade.

Emotional heritage is an interesting concept. It allows corporate entities to confuse us, trick our mind into thinking foolish things. Today’s Blizzard is not the Blizzard of yesteryear, today’s gaming market is not the same environment as that of my youth. We live in a difficult time for PC gaming and we cannot let ourselves be fooled. Diablo 3 is not, as I had wished for in my heart of hearts, a successor to the immortalised Diablo franchise. OK so it is a successor however that is not it’s primary function. Diablo 3′s primary function is to make money. Considering the franchise, we aren’t talking about pocket change. Every movement by Activision or Blizzard regarding Diablo 3 is driven by capital gains and it is entirely unlikely that it will change.

Let’s examine the scenario.

Decision #1 – Free to Play / Pay to Win

Diablo 3′s Auction house is a thinly veiled attempt by Blizzard to take a slice of the constant out of game item buying market. I’m not a fan of the free to play system stemming directly from the fact that it costs far to much since it creates a pay to win environment in which the only way to remain competitive is to pay for items. This is a ridiculous aspect of MMO’s that simply does not belong in the Diablo franchise. Worse, pay to win models can be likened to endorsed drug use for athletes, only the event organisers are the pushers making a profit. It reduces the legitimacy of gaming as a sport and after fighting so long for a scant scrap of credibility it is the last thing we need an industry leader like blizzard to adopt particularly in a non MMO game.

Decision #2 – No Mods / Restricted use of your property

This is an old argument and having never really modded Diablo or Diablo II I can’t speak with authority. I can however see both sides of this argument. As a consumer I feel I should have a right to utilise my purchase as I see fit. As a competitive gamer I would like to know the online environment is restricted and legitimate. Modding can often be considered a double edged sword, however considering the success of Warcraft III mods that have carried onto their own franchises as well as into the Starcraft II arena it is odd Blizzard has chosen this path. Except when you consider the nature of Decision #3

Decision #3 – always on DRM (digital rights management -100% internet connection required for all game modes including single player)

There have been many arguments as to what this kind of DRM means for the industry. Publishers speak constantly about the threat of piracy to the industry, a constantly rebuked and realisticly weak argument. In this scenario Blizzard speaks of the services that can be offered by a constant connection. Guaranteed anti-cheating, auction house facilities, drop in drop out co-op support, live online rankings, and constant live monitoring and cloud saving of your progress. This of course is supposed to negate the fact that should your internet become unstable lose connection or be disconnected to due to a careless council worker you will simply be disconnected form your single player game and told kindly by the Blizzard service that “ well, there are other games to play for times like that.” 

It’s plain to see the lack of mod support being spoken of as a feature is just one of the many complaints users will have about the DRM. Personally I see the auction house as a money grab by Blizzard and the last thing I need in a single player RPG is interaction with hordes of  crazed internet scammers. Let’s be serious for a few moment’s, blizzards claims that this system will abolish cheating or scammers is ridiculous, tantamount to lieing. Perhaps that kind of bullshit works on the WoW’ers out there but not even Blizzard’s street cred is going to pull that off for any experienced gamer. Not only will Blizzard’s DRM not prevent scammers and cheaters it will encourage the hacking community to take action, as they have against ubisoft and of course blizzard (not that I condone the action, just that it is expected).

I think what really makes me hate this scenario, what makes me hate Blizzard to the very core of my gaming addicted heart is that they will do this, they will pull it of and it will give every other distributor out there the licence to do the same. Sure, the boycott on Ubisoft games has for the most part worked (although they are insistent to a fault) but it wont fly with a Blizzard title. The sheer number of blind devoted fan’s that would happily shell out cash to have Blizzard CEO Perdo stick a fork in their eye, is heart breaking for those of us with a real attachment to the majesty of a gaming era now seemingly dead.

Did I buy a copy of Deus Ex despite my rage at the e-game advertising. No. Will I buy a copy of Diablo 3 despite it’s always on DRM. No.

This kind of DRM is verging on level discrimination, against socio-economic and geographicaly situated gamers. I would be pleased if some clever European activist group started a class action lawsuit against blizzard and it’s attempt to marginalize, control and discriminate it’s former fan base.

Show Notes: Listen to us talk about the Minecraft 1.8.1 update, Notch’s interactions with Bethesda and some classic Geek Haven game reviews with all the random interaction we seem to include with every discussion.

Review Game Links:

Minecraft

+ Minecraft 1.9 pre release 3 + Minecraft 1.9 release 3 Server

Fallout 3 : Vegas

Industry Craft – Mod for Minecraft

Dues Ex

Oil Rush

Watch Ian ‘Ghost‘ Ridgwell failing at the YogPod intro on Audiosurf

Minecraft – Notch’s response to the latest Bethesday thing.

A short response
I just saw this:

http://kotaku.com/5846111/mojang-v-bethesda-or-i-hate-it-when-mommy-and-daddy-fight

I feel the need to clarify a couple of things:

We realized we should apply for the trademark “Minecraft” to protect our brand. When doing so, we also sent in an application for “Scrolls”. When Bethesda contacted us, we offered both to change the name to “Scrolls:” and to give up the trademark.

They refused on both counts.

Whatever reason they have for suing us, it’s not a fear of us having a trademark on the word “Scrolls”, as we’ve offered to give that up.

Literal Trailers – Tobuscus from YouTube

Minesweeper: The Movie – Elephant Larry from College Humour

This is a must watch. It is a fan-made documentary on Aperture Science from the Portal game series.

Yes, it is true. The founder of Apple, and tyrannical ruler of all things Mac, has kicked the bucket and ceased to be. But seriously folks, the man really was a visionary. He was a pioneer for a lot of cool tech stuff and without him we would not be where we are today in terms of computing. May you rest in peace Steve, keep on wearing that black turtleneck wherever you ended up.

The Pre-release for Minecraft 1.9 is now available for download here. This update brings the release of NPCs, some new stuff in the nether (such as fortresses, and new blocks), and a new biome, the Mushroom biome! Check it out.

I promised on my Twitter that I would write a guide for this, so here it is. ONLY FOLLOW THIS GUIDE IF YOUR WII IS ON 4.3. Otherwise update to 4.3 before following this guide (or look around for another guide for your firmware).
You will need:
An SD card with about 800mb free, formatted as FAT32.
An wireless router or access point for your Wii to connect to
A Wii with 4.3 system menu installed
A copy of super smash bros. Brawl
Some free time (about 30 minutes)
What this will do:
Install the homebrew channel
Install BootMii, the unbricking tool (just in case)
Install Priloader, the system hacks tool
And install USB CFG Loader, allowing you to run backups from a thumb drive.

Now the how-to:
1. Turn on your Wii, and go into system settings. Make sure you’re on 4.3 W/U/J. Once your sure, turn off your Wii.
2. Get the files you need from here, extract them to the root of your SD card.
3. If you have any custom stages in brawl, including the sample ones, delete them.
4. With your Wii off, insert your SD card, then start up brawl.
5. Go into custom stages. Your Wii should launch the Hackmii installer automagically.
6. Install the Homebrew channel first, then BootMii as BOOT2 if you can. otherwise IOS will do. Finsh the installer when you’re done.
7. Your Wii will reboot, and (if you installed BootMii as Boot2) will start up BootMii. Now, press the power button on your Wii to move to the Cog (settings), then press Reset. This will bring up a menu. Press reset again to select the first option (NAND backup) and follow the pompts to backup your Wii.
8. This should take you back to the main menu, just move the cursor to the Wii icon, then hit Reset. The Wii system menu should load up.
9. Nearly there! Start up the Homebrew channel now.
10. Run the IOS226 Installation mod. That’ll install IOS226, then it’ll go back to the Homebrew channel.
11. Run YAWM Multimod Batch. This’ll install most of the IOSs you’ll need for Homebrew.
12. Run Priiloader 236 Mod. Once it launches, accept the agreement, then press + to install Priiloader. Hold Reset on you Wii once it’s done. Priiloader will now load.
13. Select Hacks, then select what ones you want (mininum is: Block Disc Updates, Block Online Updates).
14. Exit out, and reboot your Wii.

Congrats, you’re successfully homebrewed!

Now for CFG USB Loader. This is considerably more simple:

1. First, get the files you’ll need. They can be found here.
2. Extract that to the root of your SD card.
3. Download this one, put that in a new folder called usbloader in the apps directory on your usb card.

You’re done, you just need some games on a USB HDD. You can read on how to do that here: Link

Enjoy the world of Homebrew!

Here’s a little tutorial I threw together on making a rebulding house using Pistons in Minecraft 1.8 creative. Enjoy!

According the latest news post for Portal 2, Portal 1 is now available free of charge, but only untill the 30th of September. This is part of Valve’s Thinking with Portals initative. So if you haven’t picked this gem up yet, now’s the time.

Also, in seemy related news, Portal 2 recently recieved an update for “Preparations for launch of Portal 2 updates this September”. Hopefully the multiplayer DLC is due sometime soon.

Anyway, till next time, happy gaming!

The long wait is over after Microsoft has endlessly taunted and teased us with this spectacular OS. Windows 8 Developer preview is now available to download and install on your computers or tablets. First of all, the UI is absolutely phenomenal. It is heavily modeled after the Windows Phone 7 UI. In fact it is named the same, just modified to be usable on larger devices, and PC’s.

Without a further ado, here is the download link. So get your Windows on and test out Microsoft’s new Windows!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/

Even though Minecraft 1.8 isn’t officially out till Tuesday (if @jeb_ keeps his schedule), @notch decided to release a pre-release version of 1.8. You can download that here, but be warned, there are bugs, and if you’re a Mac/Linux user, you’re most likely out of luck at the moment, because it apparently doesn’t work on those (yet) It works now. Ok, let’s get into it! You can now get the second pre-release of 1.8 here.

The New Sparkly stuff (Features)

As soon as you open Minecraft 1.8 up, you’ll see the brand new background (which moves). The is also a Multiplayer Server List under Multiplayer, so you can finally get rid of that Text Document on your desktop with all the server IPs in it. The Options menu has been seen similar improvements, with the addition of an Field of View setting, and a Brightness slider under Video options.

In game, you’ll notice the addition of a Hunger Bar, and an EXP bar. The Hunger Bar depletes over time (unless you play in Peaceful mode, where it just stays on full), and depletes more rapidly when you Sprint, use tools, or fight mobs. The EXP bar increases as you kill mobs (neutral or otherwise), but currently doesn’t lead to anything yet. We also get a Sprint option (activated by pressing W twice), which doubles your movement speed, at the cost of Hunger. You can also deal Critical hits on mobs, by either Sprint then attacking, or by Jumping and attacking. This of course will deplete more of your Hunger Bar. Once the Hunger Bar runs out, you’ll start losing HP, so make sure you keep it high by eating food.

Speaking of food, there are now more food items in the game. Killing cows will net you Raw Beef, chickens will drop Raw Chicken, and you’ll find that Grass Seeds and Mushrooms are much more plentiful now. However, remember to cook your food before you eat it, otherwise it might poison you! Eating food will replenish you Hunger Bar, and when the Hunger Bar is near full, you’ll slowly regenerate HP.

There are new animations, from the Chest opening, to the eating of food. You can also pull your bow back more and more to deal more damage.

There is also a new lightning system, where light begins white near the source, and becomes progressively orange as it moves away from it.

Now, onto the Creative mode!

Creativity Overload (Creative Mode)

You can now play in Creative mode, where you have access to every block and item in the game, can fly, and can’t die. Also, monsters do not spawn in this mode. This mode is effectively the same as the free version of Minecraft, with the new items from the Alpha/Beta. Be warned though, flying around will cause some slight lag, as Chunks are rendered/created rapidly.

The Bug List.

Here, I’m going to talk about some bugs I’ve noticed so far.

Creative:

Minecarts do not destroy with one hit

Lag

Survival:

Possible Duplication bug with the Furnace.

Finally,

The full version of Minecraft 1.8 is due out Monday, so use this weekend to try out the new features, and leave some comments. You can read about the full changes to Minecraft here.

Coming September 8th, 2011 (according to @jeb_‘s twitter anyway), is the release of the much fabled 1.8 Update to Minecraft, also known as the Adventure Update. It brings new features like NPCs and vilages, the return of creative mode (YAY!), and a new mob, just to name a few.We also see the inclusion of an experience point system, where you gain EXP for killing mobs (such as cows and creepers), a new lightning engine, rivers (we really only had lakes before…), BIG BIG oceans, new (and expanded) biomes, animations for eating food, and variable strength on bows, so you can cause more damage with your arrows by holding down the button longer. There are also a lot of small changes, a full list follows:

• experience orbs
• rivers
• oceans
• food-eating animation
• variable-strength bow (hold it longer for more damage)
• new (and expanded) biomes
• 1.8 will add Creative Mode
• Creative Mode will have flight
• New lighting
• Endermen DO place and pickup blocks
• New log in screen
• Cobwebs are randomly generated in caves
• Randomly generated MINESHAFTS

The 1.8 update will most likely be split up into multiple parts, with most of the main features coming in a 1.8 patch and the little details and other features in a smaller patch like 1.8.2. You can read some more details from PAX here, or the list fo changes here.

UPDATE: The update got delayed till Monday the 13th of September, but you can play the pre-release version now. See here for the link.

Looks like the Kid is coming back.

Bastion is the first game of Supergiant Games, an action platformer set in a destroyed world. You play the Kid, one of the few survivors of what is known as ‘The Calamity’.

You start out with just a few weapons, your trusty hammer, later a bow, and eventually a sword, musket and pistols. Now this brings me to one the best parts of the game, the narration. Basically everything you do is narrated, from key events, to the overuse of a weapon, to your random smashing of stuff. And trust me, you’ll be doing a lot of smashing. Doing so earns you crystals, allowing you to upgrade your weapons, and buy skills at the shop once you unlock it.

Bastion is an action packed indy game, and I highly recommend it. It’s available on Xbox Live Arcade and Steam.

Minecraft Pocket Edition has been released, which is wonderful news to anyone who owns an Android device. However, it is not to be taken without several massive grains of salt. For starters, it is only available to people who own the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play gaming phone. And the biggest drawback (In my opinion) is that it costs $7. What I think should have happened, is that the App itself would be free, but you would need to buy a Minecraft account to use it. So those who already forked over the cash for Minecraft could play it. I can see how some people would be okay with this, but $7 is quite a lot to ask for an App. Especially one that is only in Alpha.

To me, I see this as just another port of Minecraft, not a new separate thing that we should pay such a large amount for. In my opinion I see this as them for example, releasing a port for another OS and making you pay for it, while the other ones are free. Like if they made the windows version paid, but the Linux and Mac free.

However, since the Android version is different, I would be okay paying some money for it, to support the costs of developing a mobile version. But really, come on, $7? That is a lot to ask for. Apps that are made for HD devices with advanced graphics don’t even cost that much.

Well, enough of the ranting, I will actually talk about the app itself now

This version isn’t as feature filled as the desktop version, it was modeled after Minecraft creative. So you have an unlimited amount of blocks and have a selection of them all as your inventory. It also supports multiplayer over wifi and saving of multiplayer worlds directly to your phone. As for visuals and graphics, since it is for phones and underpowered devices it looks like the creative version, where clouds are 2 dimensional and there is no transparency of trees.

Over-all the app itself looks decent, but the price is quite steep. Let’s hope they change their minds eh?

I know we are all partial to a little geek-out on occasion. for some people it’s a virtual night club inside an expensive computer case, others wear those iconic meme t-shirts. In this case we see a true piece of art. KyozoKicks has produced some custom Van’s with a real Boom. SSSSsssssssBOOOM to be exact.

“Due to them being such a huge drain as far as time goes (for example the placement of each coloured square had to be considered so no colour was placed beside a square of the same colour on any of the four possible sides – got it?) these Minecraft Vans shall foreseeably be the only ones I ever make. Pair one of one.” @KyozoKicks

At time of posting there is only 2 days left so you really ought to get in now and start bidding. An offer like these doesn’t come up often.

2CELLOS – the Croatian cello duo featuring Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser – hit the YouTube jackpot with their cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” and later the Guns N Roses classic “Welcome To The Jungle.” During a recent visit to the SiriusXM studios, they performed Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” during an interview with SiriusXM Pops host Paul Bachman.
For more information on SiriusXM Pops, go to www.siriusxm.com/siriusxmpops .

Can I admit a geeky love for all things cello. There’s something about the deep reverberation of the instrument that just oozes emotion. Doesn’t hurt that I’m a big Nirvana fan either. In fact I liked Nirvana before Nirvana was cool, I’m hip like that.

Hey guys, RedstoneMinecraft here

@geekhaven has allowed me to write an article about my Youtube channel to share with you guys. I’ll start by telling you a little about myself.

I learned about Minecraft from one of my friends. When I bought the game, it was in the Alpha Stage. I had a Youtube account before that, just not really popular, and had almost no views. I posted 1 Minecraft video to that channel, and now it has 4,000 views. I wanted my own channel, something that would be just for Minecraft. So 2 of my friends and I started a Livestream called RedstoneMiner.
Click here to watch a clip
We were doing the livestream mainly on friday nights for 2 or 3 weeks with an average of 10 – 20 viewers. Something came up, and we couldn’t do the livestream, anymore. So I made a Youtube account instead. That way I can upload what I want, when I want to. Along with the Youtube channel, I also made a Minecraft Forums account with the name RedstoneMinecraft, similar to my livestreams name.

I started off with a demo screen recorder and did 3 videos, that I later want on and posted on the Minecraft Forums. Today, those 3 videos have over 1,000 views. The account sat inactive for 2 or 3 months, until I re-discovered Youtube videos, and I started my own Lets Play Now I have 100 Subscribers, and I am posting videos every day.

My channel is mainly Lets Plays of Indie games including Minecraft and Terraria. Sometimes I will post other Real Life videos, but I have only done 2 of those so far. At episode 15 of my Minecraft Lets play, I decided to stop and wait for th 1.8 update to come out. So in the mean time I am working Custom Maps and other tutorials. I also do Livestream on occasion.

My last Livestream with some of my best friends on Youtube PimpingPanda, and Harv, Coe from CoesQuest posted about us on his Twitter and we had up to 40 viewers. I always take requests from my viewers. And I like to interact with them. You can always see what I am up to on my blog (www.rsmyoutube.tumblr.com) or my daily bulletins that I post on Youtube. Within the past week, I have been trying to upload at least 2 or 3 videos a day, to give you guys enough content on my channel.

Some of my favorite Youtubers include ZackScottGames, PaperBatVG, and Yogscast, and they all do a great job in what they do. So, I urge you to come on down to my channel and take a look at what I offer. Please tell me your opinion on my channel. I always like constructive critism. Thanks for taking a look at this. You can find my channel at www.youtube.com/RedstoneMinecraft

Markus “Notch” Persson’s hit indie game is about to pass 3 Million sales (2,999,684 at time of writing, increasing by about 3 every 5 seconds). Not Bad for a game which isn’t even fully out yet. The team of Mojang AB started working on this in Late 2009, and the game really kicked off in 2010, bypassing 1 Million sales in record time, starting a phenomenon among gamers around the world.

So, if your out tonight having a drink, remember to raise your glass to this momentous occasion.

To anyone who bought/buys their Nintendo 3DS before the 12th of August, Nintendo will include you in what they’re calling the ‘Ambassador Program’, allowing you to get 10 NES games, and 10 Gameboy, Gameboy Colour, or Gameboy Advance games for free. The Program is expected to start Early Septmber, and the Gameboy Advance games to become available before the end of the year.

Here’s the Offical announcement:

Nintendo Australia plan to offer an exclusive Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program to consumers who have purchased the Nintendo 3DS at the original launch price. The program will enable those Nintendo 3DS owners to download 10 NES™ games and 10 Game Boy™ and Game Boy Advance™ games for free from the Nintendo eShop.

These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before the price drop on 12 August. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program contains two elements:

1. Starting 1 September, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in the Nintendo eShop to the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, are slated to become paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors get them early for free. Once the paid versions of the games are posted to the Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.

2. By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™ Inc.: Minigame Mania and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on the Nintendo 3DS in the future.

 

This news comes after the statement that Nintendo will be dropping the Price of the Nintendo 3DS on August the 18th.

For those of you extremely depraved people who are not aware what the Humble Bundle is, it is this wonderful package of 5 indie games. 5 games? Is that all you say? Here is the good part. You can pay whatever you want, and it goes to charity. If you wanna be a jerk and pay a penny, go ahead. Want to be awesome and donate several thousand? Go ahead! Act fast though, the humble bundle only lasts for 14 more days. Not interested yet? Let me take a look at the game lineup.

Crayon Physics Deluxe

Cogs

VVVVVV

Hammerfight

And Yet It Moves

I can vouch for a lot of these wonderful games, so give a couple dollars towards charity and get some good games in the process! If you don’t like the games, wait for the next one! There is always a new Humble Bundle every couple months or so.

So go here to give towards a good cause

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Enjoy everyone

It’s back, better than ever.

For those of you that haven’t played the orignal Ocarina of Time (or it’s various ports to the Wii and Gamecube), it is considered worldwide as the best game ever made. However, it is has been 13 Years since it’s first release (1998), and we wondered if it had stood up against the test of time. The answer is; well, sort of. Nintendo have made little changes to the overall game, dialog is the same, controls are the same, as is the story. What HAS changed, and fans of the game will apprecate, is the exceptionaly fast text speed, the constant frame rate, and the game itself faster overall. Also, the remastered graphics are very pretty for a portable title, especially with the 3D effect turned on.

The 3DS version also includes the Master Quest version of the game, orignally found the Wind Waker Bonus Disc for Gamecube (if you pre-ordered your copy of Wind Waker). This version of the game is considerably harder, making even the first dungeons exceptionally hard to clear. The entire world is also mirrored, making even seasoned players feel like it’s the first time playing through the game.

Overall, Ocarina of Time 3D is a worthy addition to the (currently rather small) Nintendo 3DS libary, and should be considered a must-have for any owner of a 3DS.

This cartoon texture pack for Minecraft is great. Compatible with Minecraft 1.7.3 It’s not the best texture pack out there but it certainly adds a certain amount of charm to a scene. So if your looking for something just a little different why not give it a run. Also it’s important to note the screenshot don’t seem as up to date as the latest texture pack. I could take new screen shots or you could try it for yourself.

* How to install a Minecraft texture pack.

1. Start Minecraft

2. Click Mods and Textures.

3. Click Open Texture Pack Folder

4. Copy the downloaded zip folder (DO NOT UNZIP) into your texture folder.

5. Change the texture pack in Minecraft.

6. Enjoy the cartoony goodness.

Click here to watch a clip

Download the file here

You can also follow the thread by clicking here

This past week, Ubuntu has proudly released Ubuntu Alpha 2 for testing. As expected, Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 features the Unity desktop, built upon the sleek Gnome 3, although the shipped CD’s will contain Unity 2D to fall back upon (for those who have older GPU’s/CPU’s).
Recently I tested Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 on an old Dell Dimension 4100, and it actually worked. For those who are not familiar with older machines, the 4100 is intended to run WIN95/WIN2000. I found this amazing due the fact that the Dimension 4100 runs on 512MB of RAM and still utilizes a bulky AGP 2.0 videocard. Obviously the live CD falls back on Unity 2D, but there was no rendering problems or long waits as the live CD booted. Its booted in about 6 and a half minutes which is brilliant for such an old machine.

Back to Ubuntu Alpha 2….. Some of the changes which users will find are as follows:
Web Browser: Firefox 5
Back Up Utility: Deja Dup
Email Client: Thunderbird 5

Also, Synaptic Package Manager has been officially removed from Ubuntu (insert funeral music)…
Fortunately though, those who morn Synaptic can always go to the Ubuntu Software Centre and install it from there…

Ubuntu 11.10 has some really cool UI changes as well. GTK has now been updated to GTK3 and Ubuntu users will enjoy the new Overlay Scrollbars.
As usual, remember that Ubuntu 11.10 is only in alpha testing. DO NOT INSTALL AS PRIMARY OS!!! The release does break due to bugs which will be resolved between now and October.

To download visit: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OneiricOcelot/TechnicalOverview/Alpha2

[above] Deja Dup – Ubuntu’s Back Up Utility.

Thanks for reading!! If you liked this post, leave a comment, or donate!

Cheers!

The Lulz Boat has sailed. Lulzsec is a hacking group (in)famous for it’s takedown of minecraft.net, the EVE Online Servers, and the Login Server for League of Legends a few weeks back. They also responsible for defacing serveral websites, SQL injection hacks, and the basic but rather effective Distubited Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on many sites. There is no real reason for the group’s actions, besides “for the lulz”.

Taking advantage of the lack of security everywhere, LulzSec have even asked to wider public for targets, either via their twitter account or via IRC. In what seems to be a growing trend, a lot of their attacks are made easier by system administrators sharing their admin passwords with sites like Facebook, Paypal, and, in one quite amusing situation; Neopets. Yes Neopets. Interesting admin…

…Anyway; time to put the journo face back on. The majority of their attacks are simply just Denial of Service, taking down the site for a while. Other attacks are more sinister, ranging from admin rights to complete dumps of Databases.

There have been a lot of good puzzle games for the Ipod Touch/Iphone, like Cut the Rope and the Heist, just to name a few. Well, add another one to that list. It’s called Continuity 2, and it’s worth about $1.19 on the App Store.

Continuity 2 has you guding a stick figure through a maze, collecting coins, then escaping using the door. However, to get there, you’ll have to zoom out, then move the level around to proceed. You may also have to change gravity by rotating your iDevice.

Up, Down Left or Right?

The Game starts out slow, introducing you to the core concepts, then begins to rapidly increase in diffculty, moving from just two areas, to nine. After completing a level, your given a run down on how well you did, how many coins you collected, and how much time you took, including the time the Developers believe is a good time to beat. The game includes 6 worlds, with roughly 10 levels each. Pick this up. It’s a STEAL.

Quite recently I broke down and bought the newly released Alice: Madness Returns. A while back I played through the first game, American McGee’s Alice, and really quite enjoyed it. As expected I am enjoying this game even more. American McGee is heavily known for his completely messed up and twisted imagination. In the Alice games, it really shows.

First of all, I simply adore the graphic and art style. It really is something new that hasn’t been done too much before, well since the first Alice game anyway. You start off as Alice (obviously) in London, somewhere between the late 1800′s and the early 1900′s, everything is dirty, colourless, bland. Very dead, very sad and all around depressing. This is interesting because at this point in the game, you are in fact, not in Wonderland, but instead in reality.

I will try not to spoil too much, because this is a fantastic game and should be played by those who have the stomach for American McGee’s twisted imagination. After some things happen, you of course come back into wonderland, where everything is colourful and vibrant, and of course… dangerously maddening. The actual gameplay has been greatly improved since the first game. I found the platform jumping very clunky, so was the combat. The combat in this is really good, which I will go into detail momentarily, the movement is still a little clunky as there are glitches here and there which cause you to fall off sometimes which is really annoying. Luckily falling of the world doesn’t decrease your health, otherwise I would be dead a million times already

The combat is pretty smooth and works rather well. I like how you never know what the game is going to throw at you, the enemies are really diverse and take a little while to figure out how to beat them. Some enemies are really quite disturbing…

Now for the bad stuff. The plot is really wonderful and twisted, it is very gripping and leaves you begging for more, which is kind of the only thing that keeps you going. The gameplay in between major plot points gets extremely repetitive and even more tiring. Everytime you enter a new “level” or area, you are left marveling at the modeling artwork and charming scenery, that is until, 2 hours later and you are still left doing the same damn thing. If it weren’t for the fantastic plot, I probably would have gotten very bored in between levels.

Other than that, there really isn’t much I can say bad about it. The wonderfully disturbing cutscenes are done in a way that looks like paper cutouts, and it works really well for the game.

This really is a fantastic game, so if you really love twisted horror and just all around insanity, with wonderful graphics and sweet combat, give Alice: Madness Returns a spin

Achron, an upcoming RTS by Hazardous Software, is posing to be one of the most mind breaking games ever made. Along with all your usual units and buildings of a standard RTS, it has one important new weapon: the ability to control TIME. You can move around in time during gameplay, issuing orders in the past, the present, or the future. You can also later move units between times using a Chrono Portal, sending an army in to the past to destroy your enemies base, or send a nuke into the future for the ultimate attack. However, what you can do, so can the other player, so not only do you have to keep track of units in the present, you have to make sure they won’t be destroyed in the past, removing all they’ve done.

As demonstrated in that video, changes take a while to take effect, allowing a player to launch a massive offensive in the past, to remove a base entirely in the future, but allowing the other player to send units back to attempt to counter. Then counter-counter. Then counter-counter-counter; etc.

And that is only with TWO PLAYERS playing. Now think about eight players in a game. The possiblites are endless for absoulute mayhem.

HOWEVER. Each map has a different limit of time travel, maybe you can jump 30 minutes into the past, maybe only 30 seconds. Maybe no future jumping at all. When events are off the timeline, they enter what is known as the Unplayable Past. The events in the Unplayable Past can not be changed, allowing rather sneaky tatics such as nuking a base just before that time enters the Unplayble Past. However, due to the flow on effect, you’ll still have time to get out of your base  by moving your units away using a Chrono Portal,  moving them to the future and away from the danger.

Achron is shaping up to be an epic of a strategy game, which I’m looking forward to it’s final release. Be Prepared for the Time Paradoxes.

Yoshi here. I want to speak about single-player commands mod for Minecraft.
i know there is people who don’t like to cheat and people who love to cheat (Like Me), but what is the goods and the bad parts of the single-player commands mod for Minecraft. I know there is people out there that go for a walk in the world of Minecraft and then they can’t find home again. i know people who get soooo lost in minecraft that they delete the world (eg Me! X0). well this mod for minecraft will help you to find what your home again ( yepee for some!) and will be able to make bigger and better things. Click on this link to download http://www.minecraftdl.com/single-player-commands-1-6-6/ http://adf.ly/22l3E (p.s after you hit download. Just hit skip ad in the top right hand side to download). I’m going to take you though on how to install it and how to use it.

1.Backup your Minecraft.ajr
2.Open minecraft.jar with WinRAR or 7Zip (anything will do)
3.Delete META-INF folder (for MAC only delete Mojang_c files)
4.Copy all .class extension files that you have downloaded into minecraft.jar
5.Close minecraft.jar
6.Copy all .jar extension files to minecraft/bin folder
7.Finished

ok done! if you have any problems with that comment and I will help.
i have done a list of all the commands and what they do.
When you go into minecraft and play a world hit “t” to being up chat.
ascend – Moves you to the next platform above your position
atlantis – Toggles atlantis mode on/off
biome – Tells you what biome you are currently in
bind {COMMANDPARAMS} – Binds a command to a keyboard button.
bindid {ARGS} – Binds a command to a keyboard key using the key id
bring [ENTITY] – Brings the specified entity to you.
cannon [STRENGTH] – Shoots a primed TNT in the direction you are pointing.
chest – Allow access of chests
clear – Clears the console
Clearwater – Toggles water clarity on/off
clone [QUANTITY] – Clones the NPC which you are looking at
config – Allows you to set the global configuration file as your current configuration
confuse [DISTANCE] – Confuses nearby mobs
confusesuicide – kill npc in range.
cyclepainting – Cycles through the painting which you are pointing at
damage – Turns player damage on/off
defuse [all] – Defuses any TNT nearby which has been hit, drops 1 tnt in its place
descend – Moves you to the next platform below your position
destroy [all] – Destroys the current item
difficulty – Sets the difficulty to the specified level (0-3)
drops – Turns item drops on/off, having them turned off will make the game run a little bit faster, and also stop your inventory from filling.
dropstore – This command transfers everything in your inventory into a chest that it creates next to you.
duplicate [all] – Duplicates and drops the currently selected item stack
explode [SIZE] – Sets off an explosion in your current location.
exterminate [SIZE] – KillNPC with style, kills the NPC you are pointing at
extinguish|ext [all] – Puts out all nearby fire (or all fire)
falldamage – Turns fall damage on/off
firedamage – Turns fire damage on/off
flammable [CATCH] [SPREAD] – Sets the specified block at the flammability level
fly [SPEED] – Allows you to turn flying mode on/off, speed specified your flying speed
freeze – Freezes mobs so that they cannot move or attack you
goto – Goto a waypoint
grow [all] – Grows all saplings/wheat on the map.
heal – Heals a player the specified number of points
health – Sets the health of a player to pre-defined figures
help [COMMAND] – Gives general help when COMMAND isn’t specified, gives specific help when COMMAND is specified. Same as /h
helmet [ITEM] [QTY] [DAMAGE] – Specifies the helmet the player wears
home – Teleport to spawn point
infiniteitems – Toggles infinite items on/off
instantkill – Instantly kills any NPC you hit
instantmine – Turns instant mining on/off
instantplant [grow] – Instantly plants saplings into the ground, if grow is specified the tree will when instantly grow
item [QUANTITY] [DAMAGE] – Gives player item, if quantity isn’t specified maximum amount of that item. Same as /give and /i
itemdamage – Turn item damage on/off. This means you will never have to repair an item again
itemname – Use this command to discover the itemname and ID of your currently selected item.
itemstack [QUANTITY] – Gives the player the specified quantity of maximum item stacks of the item.
jump – Moves you from where you are to where your mouse is pointing. Note: This command is buggy and may put you in the block you move to.
keepitems – Turn this on and you will keep your items when you die.
kill – Kills the current player
killall – Kills all of the specified mob type
killnpc [all|monster|animal] – Kills all living creatures nearby.
light – Turns permanent lighting on and off
listwaypoints – Lists all waypoints. Same as /l
longerlegs – Makes your legs longer so you can walk up 1 block high
macro – Runs a macro
maxstack [ITEMID|ITEMNAME|all] [STACKSIZE] – Configures the maximum stack size of that item between 1 and 64.
mobdamage – Mobs cannot give you damage
msg – This commands adds a message to the console.
music [play|pause|skip|stop|VOLUME] – Requests a music track to be played, there is a limitation of at MAX 2 tracks per day. Set the volume by specifying VOLUME.
noclip – Turns no clip on/off.
output – This just toggles SPC messages on/off, useful for macros/scripts.
phelp [COMMAND] – Provides help for plugins
platform – Puts a glass square under your feet
plugin – Lists all loaded plugins and also allows you to enable/disable plugins
pos – Gives current player position. Same as /p
reach – Sets the player reach distance.
refill [all] – Re-stocks your items in your inventory to the maximum ammount
rem – Removes the specified waypoint
removedrops [all] – This command removes item drops from the world.
rename – Allows you rename a command to a new name
repair [all] – Repairs the currently selected item to full health
reset – Resets the player settings
reskin – Reskins the NPC which you are pointing at to the specified skin
return – Moves the player to the last position before teleport
ride – Allows you to ride any NPC which you point at
sc – Added scripting support (more information coming soon)
search – Allows you to search for items using a name
set – Mark a waypoint on the world
setjump [JUMP|reset] – Sets the height that you jump. Note: Turns fall damage off if the jump is configured to move than 1.
setspawn [ ] – Set the current position as the spawn point, if X Y Z are specified sets that position as spawn point
setspeed [SPEED|reset] – Sets the speed that the player moves
skin – Change your players skin to ANY minecraft player
slippery [SLIPPERYNESS] – Makes the specified block slippery
spawn [QTY] – Allows you to spawn an individual creature.
spawnportal – Spawns a portal nearby the player
spawnstack – Spawns the specified creature a few blocks away from your current position (use “/spawn list” to get a list of creature names and codes).
superheat [all] – Turns items which are furnace-able into their furnaced form
superpunch [DISTANCE|reset] – Hit that NPC with a punch like no other
tele – Teleport to X Y Z coordinates. Same as /t
time [set|get|day|night [minute|hour|day [TIME]]] – Set and get the time within minecraft.
timeschedule <reset | > – Sets a period of time (HH:MM format), this will make minecraft always within this time.
unbind – Unbinds the specified key from a command.
unbindid – Unbinds a command from a keyboard key using the key id
useportal – Instantly transfers you to the nether, use it again to go back.
waterdamage – Turns water damage on/off
weather – Toggles weather on/off
world – Allows you to explicitly, have control over your world.
world load – Loads the specified FILE, this allows you to play ANY save on your computer, not just World1-5, and can have any name
world save – Explicitly saves your game then returns to it
world seed [SEED] – Allows you to see and change the seed of the map, so it will generate custom terrain
world new [FILENAME] [SEED] – Creates a new map at the specified location
world exit – Lets you exit a game without saving (perfect from when a creeper blows something up)
world list – Lists all the saves which you can load from “.minecraft/saves”
world backup – Allows you to backup your current world into .minecraft/backup

I hope all this will help you.
cheers Yoshi

UPDATE: Please not that this trick no longer works as of Minecraft Release. We currently do not no of any alternative.

Hello again. Today I’m going to teach you to make your minecraft install portable. Basically this allows you to run Minecraft from a portable hard drive, USB stick, or even on a network share. Please note that your saves will still be stored in the Appdata directory of the current user (I know no workaround for this except to keep coping the saves).

You will need:

A Copy of Minecraft (perferably the latest);

An reasonably up-to-date Java install (it MUST be Java Runtime 6);

A Windows/Linux/Mac PC;

Some Spare Time.

You need to run Minecraft at least once.

For Windows:

1. You need a run box, so press Windows Key+R. If your running Windows 7 or Vista, just open the start menu.

2.type in “%appdata%” without quotes.

3.for Windows XP, copy the .minecraft folder to your final destination. for Windows 7 and Vista, you’ll find the .minecraft folder inside the Roaming folder. Copy that to it’s final destination.

4.Once it’s finished copying, rename the .minecraft folder to just minecraft.

5.Okay, now you need the launcher. Head here (click here for mirror) to get them. Make sure to grab both, as some machines are 32bit, some are 64bit.

6.Place these in the same folder as your minecraft folder.

7.You’re done! Run the Launcher to start playing.

For Linux/Macs:

1. Now, the .minecraft folder is in your home directory, and it’s a hidden folder. You need to copy that to it’s final destination.

2.Once it’s finished copying, rename the .minecraft folder to minecraft.

3.open up a terminal in that folder, then run this command: java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -cp “minecraft\bin\*” -Djava.library.path=”minecraft\bin\natives” net.minecraft.client.Minecraft “minecraftportable”

4.Enjoy.

Some Extra Tips.

You probably saw the net.minecraft.client.Minecraft “mincraftporatble” bit in the command. the “minecraftportable” bit is your multiplayer name when you connect to a server which is in offline mode. Change that as you see fit. Windows users will find a similar command in their launchers; just open that file up in notepad and make the needed changes.

If you need any help, or have any questions, please feel free to leave comments below.

Yes, that is not a typo. Team Fortress 2 is now free to play to all Steam subscribers, and even includes the Source SDK. To celebrate, Valve has also released the Uber Pack, giving the Medic a massive overhaul, with new weapons, and his own trailer. This also includes lots more items, more weapons, and of course, more hats for your hat collection goodness.

This is a interesting move by Valve to bring one of their most popular multiplayer games to the free level, just leaving the item shop in game as a service.

What do you think of this? Leave your comments below.

A while back we got the chance to talk with the peeps from Wildfire Games and find out a bit about their project 0 A.D.

Wildfire Games has been around for a while and even had their incredibly popular Age of Empires II mod ‘Rome at war’ featured on the cover disk of PC Powerplay and Gamestar. No small feat for an indie team working on a shoestring budget. Currently the Wildfire team is working exclusively on 0 A.D. and it looks impressive. I’m keen to get involved in the beta myself.

What gave you the idea for creating an open source game like 0 A.D. ?

0 A.D. started out as a closed-source, proprietary game, about a decade ago, that was meant to be available at no charge. We had wanted to mod Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings but ran into obstacles modding an existing game, so we figured we might as well build an engine from scratch. We had an urge to innovate in the Real Time Strategy genre, adding features such citizen-soldiers, automatic unit upgrading, more realistic naval warfare and more. Quite clearly, we underestimated how long that would take, especially since we’re all volunteers. Over time, attracting new developers became a difficult, time-consuming task, and development started to slow down, putting the whole project in jeopardy.

So, when 0 A.D. went open source in July 2009, we set out to lower the barriers to entry, making it easy for people to check out our project and see if it interests them. On top of that came some nobler reasons, including our wish to share the tools and code we had developed by then, and our opinion that gamers should be allowed to learn how their games work, change them, share them and redistribute their works. Hence, in short, not only did we feel an urge to innovate and share, we also felt gamers should have the freedom to tinker, and to this day we hope a lot of gamers tinker with 0 A.D.

So far the open source release seems to have been a big boost for the project, and we have witnessed a really exciting increase in the number of contributors and the pace of development over the past two years.

What is 0 A.D.’s involvement with Wildfire games?

0 A.D. is currently the only project being developed by Wildfire Games and has been so for a few years now. Essentially, Wildfire Games is a fancy name for “the 0 A.D. development team”. We hold on to our moniker because it bears a historical connection to Wildfire Studios, the modding team that was our predecessor.

What is it like developing a game for multiple platforms? Is there a department for each OS?

Nope. Some of our contributors test the game on multiple platforms, and some of them develop on both Windows and Linux. The different flavors of Linux have all sorts of idiosyncratic problems with installing and running 0 A.D., so we rely on contributors who know certain distributions well in order to solve problems with packaging and running 0 A.D. Having said that, Mac OS development has unfortunately been lagging behind for lack of contributions, and we invite Mac developers to help us make some progress on that platform.

How do you fund the game, after all the game is free…

Expenses like web hosting are generally paid for by donations from our fans. We put in our own spare time for 0 A.D. and, with one notable exception, expect no compensation for that. The exception is that some $3,000 from the same source of income have been set aside for full-time development of the codebase within the next few months. We decided to invest in having one programmer be more deeply involved in 0 A.D. for a few weeks to really propel it forward. That said, the game is free of charge and always will be. No advertising, no catch.

How do you make money as an independent gaming studio making free games?

We don’t, 0 A.D. is not for profit. We’re just doing it for fun, to gain experience, for the educational value and more.

What obstacles do the 0 A.D. game developers face? Perhaps on a day-to-day level, and perhaps on a larger scale?

There are quite a few, but let’s discuss three. First, we are a group of volunteers from all over the world, in very different timezones, contributing in several different fields. Coordinating everybody so that we’re on the same page can be challenging. It requires effective management and good communications. We have weekly IRC meetings and forums to help cope with that for team discussions. (Our conversations can get pretty silly, which is awesome.)

Next, it can be tricky to get 0 A.D. to look and work the way we expect it to, at least the first time around. For example, one of the most important engine components, named “Simulation”, was implemented poorly at first. Simulation is in charge of changing the state of each entity in the “world” represented in the game, like handling harvesting resources, doing damage to stuff and handling death. It was difficult to debug any part of the game, and that deterred any potential new programmers from joining. Thankfully, a Wildfire Games programmer fixed this almost alone over a few months, and those troubles are now long gone. (On a similar note, quite a bit of the early 0 A.D. art, such as the Roman building set, is not up to par with later contributions and will be redone in due course).

Last but not least, we would also like to attract new contributors willing and able to help complete 0 A.D. Our general approach to this is to release regularly and often, and keep letting the world know about our progress. Since August 2010 we have released an alpha version every 70 days on average, and we intend to keep releasing more alpha versions at about the same frequency (or slightly greater) until the game is feature-complete. If any developers out there are reading this, you are welcome to get involved.

How do you manage to hold an organisation like wildfire games together. Is it a crime of passion or do you have carefully structured and organised internal politics ?

We have a few departments, which are really teams of volunteers dedicated to different fields (art, programming, sound etc). The work of each team is coordinated and overseen by a department head. Our project lead, Erik Johanssen (aka feneur), is our chief coordinator, but generally we make decisions by team consensus.

Have you considered developing FPS or RPG games or is RTS your specialty.

We haven’t considered any other games, we’d be quite happy to finish 0 A.D. first.

How long does it take to develop a game from concept to release.

The concept for 0 A.D. was first put into writing in 2001, and we’re still not done yet. We hope to finish the game by 2012, and with recent developments, that seems reasonable.

What does it take to get involved with a wildfire games game. Can anyone join up or are you looking for particularly skilled individuals.

We are looking for programmers proficient in C++ and/or JavaScript, for OpenGL, AI and gameplay. We need people to help record video clips of the game and edit them into promotional and educational videos, like a trailer or a video explaining how some game mechanic works. We need artists, both 2D and 3D, with a special emphasis on 3D animators. And we need a web designer to make our website friendlier, more effective and usable.

How can people help wildfire games out donations or support?

Paypal donations to 0 A.D., no matter how small, are always welcome here.

We’d like to thank the people over at Wildfire Games, especially Aviv, who we first made contact with. 0 A.D. is an excellent project and I hope we can all get behind them as they work towards beta. Feel free to ask questions in the comments and I’ll be sure they get passed on to the Wildfire Games team.

On June 15, news was released regarding the Ubuntu Software Centre. Photos were also released, and the new design is phenomenal. The Ubuntu Software Centre is becoming quite a refined and sophisticated piece of software.

The new design is sleek allows easy access for software, as well as reviews, ratings and more!

I was quite impressed with this new design. I think that Ubuntu is going in a new direction regarding their software centre interface, and I like it!

I hope you enjoyed this small update on the Ubuntu Software Centre! Comment, Donate, Share!

Cheers!

Earlier this week Notch, our beloved creator of indie game hit Minecraft, posted some pics of the new 1.7 update. However, today he posted a tweet implying that there were some secrets hidden inside said pictures. And as of yet, no one has figured it out! This is just an interesting little tidbit of information I thought I would share. Come on people, let’s solve this mystery! I want to hear Notch say: “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” Look up Notch on twitter, find his pics and see what you can find! Good luck!

I’m 1200 ft down, and all I can think about is ‘Why didn’t I bring moretorches?’ It’s dark, and shadows flicker in the dim edges of my vision.I can hear them coming. I had never suspected that my journeywould lead me here, lost and hoping for a miracle, in this dank hole,somewhere far beneath the surface.

Terraria (2011) is developed by Andrew (Redigit) Spinks and his team Jeremy (Blue) Guerrette; Finn (Tiy) Bryce; and Gabriel (Red Yoshi) Henrique Kiesshau. Terraria is a game about discovering your own adventure. One of those focus-on-the-journey- not-the-destination adventures, where you find your inner person struggling to escape into the fantasy.

Click here for a gameplay trailer.

Lacking a single genre, I would call Terraria an exploration, adventure and building game, themed on such classics as Super Mario Brothers (Nintendo, 1983) and Super Wonder Boy (Sega, 1986). It offers a traditional audio experience, and includes classic background music to match the retro atmosphere. Unfortunately genre classification and traditional review methods don’t do Terraria justice. With this in mind I thought it best to share just one of my experiences with you.

I dig, for no other reason than that I can. That was until I found ore. At first I crafted a copper sword, then an iron breastplate. I could feel reality slipping away as I sought more than just armour, and protection from the waves of creepy-crawly dwellers.
My addiction becomes even more apparent as I seek the unknown riches from even greater depths. What began as a task seeking safety becomes a quest for a holy grail. I discover new and frightening experiences, and deliciously rare objects of questionable origin.

With resources in hand I began to build. My hut had grown cramped. Although functional as a workshop, it lacked personality. With wood and stone I begin my creation. My first attempts are practical and sensible affairs. Tenement blocks, for my comrades and I to share a functional life. This was soon replaced by extravagance, gold chandeliers and silver architraves were only the beginning. It took a great deal of time to complete, and I was interrupted by the ravaging goblin tribes and roaming undead. I did however complete my Sydney Opera House, my Tower of Babalon, and my Castle of Epic. Now there was only one thing on my mind: defend it, at any cost.

I felt a cold chill down my spine. It was a new and exciting feeling. I had done all there was to do, plumbed the depths for riches and built a home of unparalleled beauty. This new experience was exactly what I had been waiting for; a culmination of effort to this moment. Then I saw it, and a sickening bile rose in my throat. Glaring at me with it’s one massive bloodshot eye it howled in anger. I held my sword aloft, and shouted from the battlements.

Terraria is an epic ballad in the making, with each and every step a new page in the tale unfolding.

Terraria is an adventure un-planned; un-scripted and un-repeatable.

It’s 4am, and I’m supposed to get up for work in three hours. All in all, it’s not a bad buy for $9. When I knock off work, I will try the multiplayer.

Greetings internet, I have been gone for the past few days and upon my return, I was delighted to find out that Mac OS X Lion is to be released soon. I am really looking forward to using Lion, after all it is the world’s most advanced operating system.

Mac OS X Lion has a plethora of new features, all of which contribute to making it a really stunning piece of technology. First, and most importantly are the new Multi-Touch Gestures. Too often I find myself struggling with PC track-pads and such which lack handy and important hand gestures. Some PC track-pads don’t even have scrolling! Getting back to gestures… some of the new gestures are: “rubber-band” scrolling, page and image zoom, full-screen swiping, and a few more goodies which I’ll let you figure out for yourselves.

Second, Mac OS X Lion adds Full-Screen Apps. This means that you can utilize the entire screen for a fresh look at an app which you are running. For example, if you are creating a document using Writer, or browsing pictures in iPhoto, you can temporarily get rid of the clutter around the screen like the toolbars and the desktop bar. Don’t worry though, moving your cursor to the top of your screen unfolds the toolbars so that you can continue working.
The third feature is Mission Control. You’ve seen window-switching or dashboard before, but now you can enjoy a sleek combination of dashboard, expose, and spaces all at the same location, organized, clean, and sensible. Mission Control is truly the “Hub of your system.”

Fourth, the App Store. While this somewhat new piece of software made itself available during 10.6.7, the App Store is going to see expansion, including the option of purchasing Lion right from the App Store itself. Of course you’ll have to be running Snow Leopard, because if your running Lion, why buy it again…?!
Fifth, is a new feature called Launchpad. I am really excited for this one! For all you iOS lovers like myself, you now not only can swipe icons on your iphone, but you can now do it from your desktop. Don’t read this wrong, I am not trying to be condescending, I actually really wanted to do that badly, and now I can. Lauchpad when activated (with one of the new track-pad gestures) will display all your Apps for you to access. Think of Launchpad as the really quick way of starting an App, which will be helpful for those who like accessing their software really easily. Launchpad, like iOS also has the ability to create folders. See the picture below. And I must say, it looks quite sexy.

Sixth, Lion has a new built-in feature called ‘Resume’ basically, if you have to restart your mac for any reason, Lion will remember what software was being used, the position of windows as well as secondary windows like font settings or inspectors. This will be a huge benefit to us users who postpone important updates because they require us to restart our computers.

Seventh and Eighth, are probably the most important new features which are Auto save and Versions. Users will no longer be prompted to save their work when exiting programs, because Lion will constantly be auto-saving. The only thing you have to do is name the file. No saving every so often in order to prevent lose of data. Mac OS X Lion is doing it all! With Versions, you can also browse through every save point throughout your work. So if you liked something you did previously, just start up Versions, navigate backwards to the previous state of the document, and viola its there!
Ninth is a new feature called ‘Airdrop’ which allows Mac users to seamlessly and securely share files via wifi. The user just drags the folder he/she wants to share, drop over the airdrop users icon in the Finder, and you’ve instantly shared files with someone. And don’t worry, confirmation must be given at both ends for the files to be sent.

And Tenth, is Mail. Lion takes email, and puts it on a whole new level. Because of the Full-Screen App feature, Mail will utilize all the screen making it beautiful and easy to read. Mail now displays full-height messages along with snippets. Conversations also presents the user with a thread displaying an elegant timeline showing each message. There are many more new features, Mail is simply packed full of new options making it the best Mail App around.

These are just 10 of the 250+ new features in Mac OS X Lion.

I know this post is rather late, but I thought I would let you guys know that the new Bukkit server mod for Minecraft has been completed. All you Minecraft server admins out there know why this is something to jump for joy about Notch is a great programmer, he made an excellent game, but his server software for Minecraft is less than useable for a decent server. Bukkit remedies this by modding it to run wonderfully on your system and have a fantastic API so devs can easily make plugins for Minecraft servers, that won’t break every time the game updates. So those of you who are hosting a Minecraft server and not running Bukkit, I would HIGHLY recommend switching. It uses less system memory and CPU power, allowing a faster and more lag-free server.

Enjoy all your Minecrafting