f-log

I got MindCandy Volume 2: Amiga Demos through the post yesterday from http://www.maz-sound.de and the owner emailed me suggesting I try out the http://www.mindcandydvd.com/frames?p=previews DVD, which has some very cool Amiga workbench menus that could not be included in the final version.
I will post a review once I have had the chance to watch the whole thing.
Also I finally managed to purchase my final Dreamcast game, one I have wanted since I heard of its release "Typing of the Dead", now I need to setup the Dreamcast to try it out.

People were very generous towards alex and we have had to hide some of his many presents for a rainy day less he becoming overwhelmed.
I got a new camera from my wife, which is good because my current one has always had the failing that the battery runs out if left in the camera and I have heard the same story from others with the same model.
I also got dvds and fun stuff though I notice there were many more presents for family rather than me, oh well it was a good run !
My next job will be to fill in the archive details and then create a yearly overview.

No entries for a while because I have been away for most of the holidays.
On my many journeys I took the wii ...
First was to my office on the last day of work, where many were amazed that the legendary console they had been hearing about existed and the would be playable.
We arranged to setup a company projector in an empty office, the large screen area really worked.
I made a point of after setting up the wii and loading wii sports to hand the controllers over to anyone who wanted to play and just leave them. I was interrupted once from my work to fix the setup, it appears during a break the projector had gone to sleep and simply had to be told where to look for its signal source.
There was a wide range of people who tried the wii not a single one had had the opportunity to play on it before although a couple had managed to get a wii for Xmas but it was wrapped awaiting the children.
Everyone from hardcore to casual to non gamers tried and had fun with the system, about 1 in 3 people said they would try and get a wii for themselves or their family soon, out of 30 odd people.
Three player bomberman using two wii motes and one gamecube controller was particularly fun for me.
Also it was odd to see which types of games people preferred, from the wii tennis to wii pool (part of wii play).
Next I was off to the inlaws who luckily had a large 32in CRT TV, which worked very well. Everyone from my brother inlaw and his wife of 26 through to my farther inlaw to my grandfather inlaw(85) had fun with the simplicity and intuitiveness of the wii the wii truly is a revolution.

The only other thing I have bought for the wii is 2000 points.
I did not intend to buy any points yet but all the shops had 2000 points for £20 and then I saw it for £13.99 so I snapped it up.
Turns out £13.99 is the RRP of 2000 points so the shops are talking advantage, like the SD memory cards that you can buy from any camera shop that they are selling at way over the average price.
Registering my points was a pain because I had read that to use the wii shop you HAD to register, registering on the web site was easy but linking my registration to the wii console was not.
I kept getting error 206401 saying that my account could not be linked. After a quick google I found this may be due to use of non alphanumeric characters in the email or password, changing them made no difference. So I followed the links to Contact Us and the page had a phone number that ended with 247 and no information about opening times. Every time I rang I got a message saying all the operators were busy and that my call would be answered in fifteen seconds, but after fifteen seconds all I got was the same message. While waiting I had a look at the wii play booklet and found the exact same number with opening times listed as 0:800 - 19:00 it was now 22:30.
Still 24hrs later it all worked and I realised that the linking was not required to use/redeem my points.
I decided to get Bomberman 93 as it supports 5 players (allows use of old gamecube controllers).
Bomberman is a classic favorite multiply player game of mine and I even got Sarah to play AND enjoy it !
As far as Nintendo are concerned your mothers maiden name can not by shorter than six characters, which is just not true ...

Drat, erm if you linked here from the tag check the next post down, sorry.

Book review: Electronic Universe - David Bodanis
One thing I have never quite understood is electricity, sure I can build a circuit and calculate ohms law but what is an AMP and why does electricity 'work' ?
David Bodanis starts at the beginning with the basic experiments used in history to 'discover' electricity and then weaves an engaging tale through recent history going from batteries to radio waves, radar and brain waves.
Very enjoyable, easy to read and I feel I learned a lot, recommended.
Note that these tags should also include a title so you do not just see a load of dates.

The one game I have bought for the wii is wii Play as it comes with a free controller or it's a controller that comes with free wii Play.
There a nine games in wii Play each designed to get you comfortable using the wii remote.
Shooting: Although most reviews say this IS the NES duck hunt zapper game it's not but it has a simular look and plays as you would imaging shooting targets/ducks with the wii remote acting as a gun. I found it did not hold my interest.
Find Mii: Use the wii remote as a pointer and pick out matching mii characters, gets harder as you get further along with miis swimming and using escalators. Strangely addictive, but will not hold you for long.
Pose Mii: Your pointer turns into a mii character and you must rotate the remote to match with the outline. Surprisingly hard, you have to remember to repose your mii in later levels.
Table tennis: You only need to move the pointer to right place on the table the swing is made for you. I found this really hard.
Laser Hockey: Neon air hockey, best with two people, you can rotate for bat for angled shoots. Really why I got wii Play.
Pool: A square pool table, line up your shoot and then pull back on the remote and push forward as if it were a pool cue. Loads of fun, I would buy a more extensive pool game after playing this limited one.
Fishing: Use the remote as a fishing rod, dangle the hook in front of a fish and when they bite pull up quickly. Perspective is a little odd but you get used to it, I am sure small children will love it.
Charge: Easy to describe; you are ridding a knitted bull down a knitted road with knitted trees and knitted grass trying to hit knitted scarecrows and avoiding (strangely unknitted fences). You turn the remote sideways for this one and play by tilting forward and backwards for accelerate and brake, tilting left and right to steer and yanking upwards sharply to jump. Strangely addictive.
Tanks: 2d tank game best played with the nunchuk, move with the analog stick and aim the turret with the pointer. Fun but feels like there should be more to it, gets harder with missiles and mines etc.
If you look on ebay a number of unscrupulous dealers are selling the wii Play on its own for buy it now prices of up to £49.99 and calling it rare, its a free game for goodness sake !

Also as part of the wii system is the mii system and photo viewer.
Goto the mii channel to create funny little mii characters that you then use in the wii sports and wii play games. You can create miis that look like yourself or famous people or that just look just plain weird, create up to a 100 !!
The photo viewer uses the SD card slot and will work with standard mpg movies JPEG images and mp3 music.
The music only works in the slide show mode, there is no other way of playing your own music files, although it is rumored that some games may allow custom sound tracks.
Once an image or movie is selected you can select the "fun" option and play with the brightness, set to black and white and a few other effects.
Or try the doodle option (that also works with two controllers) to draw all over the image (or movie) including eye dropper to select color and a set of clip-art style items like sun glasses that you can add to the image/movie. Turn the controller to angle these correctly.
Finally there is the puzzle option, this (initially) splits the image into 6 blocks and randomly arranges them, you must drag and drop them back into order.
Once you have done this you will get the option for harder puzzles like 48 blocks or even 192 (see below).
On the "fun" select screen if you fail to make a selection a cat shadow appears and if you can catch it (with the A button) it gives you odd hints and tips like the puzzle mode works with movies and holding down the (1) button on the level select screen gives you the hidden option of 192 blocks.

Alex has a chest infection so have not had much time to do anything, but I did get to wii about a little bit.
First off absolutely everyone who has seen the wii in action has loved it and perhaps more importantly had no problem using it.
When our neighbors came around to try it out I specifically left them at the wii menu wii sports in the drive but not loaded) and they had no problem working out how the remote functioned or how to get into the tennis part of wii sports.
Along with the wii console is wii sports containing Tennis,Baseball,Bowling,Golf,Boxing and a fitness training mode.
Tennis is fun and simple, just play tennis !
Baseball is boring but only because its baseball.
Bowling is clever but a bit limited, bowl backwards into the crowd and see what happens !
Golf is my favorite and I normally hate golf games, take a practice swing and then step up and play ball (or is that baseball ?)
Boxing is the only game to use the nunchuk attachment (included with console). You hold a controller in each hand; then with each hand you can block (lift to face), punch high (push out), punch low (push out in a downward direction), you can also lean your character left, right, backward and forwards by moving the controllers. At no point do you need to press any buttons.

Now this is funny !
http://xkcd.com/c149.html
wii news as I get two mins to blog it.

WIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii............!!!
It has arrived !
Love it !
exclamation point !

I have started customising my first of three GWINs
I have been playing burnout 3 when ever I get a few free minutes and I have completed 170/173 races ! But the last few are proving VERY difficult, with fast, hard to control cars fight very tough time limits.
I have been buying up Woolworth old Xbox stock as the clear their shelves ready for the new consoles. I have a stack of games that were under a fiver and few that I had never seen even second hand for under 20 quid that I got for a tenner. Just have no idea when I will get to play them.
Speaking of which, my wii will be delivered on Friday Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!