Chore Wars

So in order to get stuff done I've caught the 'gamerfication' bug and started up Chore Wars...



Basically it is a free little site designed to make the dull and mundane life of household chores into an awesome action adventure full of monsters, experience points and leveling up.

Given how much of a sucker I am for cheap incentives, this was an instant sell. You get to design your own 'adventures' and the monsters/prizes you will encounter. You can have a lot of fun making up silly stories for whatever it is that needs done. Following the completion of an adventure, you claim your xp, based solely on an honesty system...But considering I was the only one interested in such an awesome action adventure in my household, the only honesty I need worry about is my own <_< >_>

Here is a link to check out my cool little set-up.

I'm not really sure of the longevity of this world and it looks as though the site has not been updated in a long while, but at the very least my room is now very clean :D


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Brian's Saviour (A Distracted Journey)

With university deadlines fast approaching it was only natural to make a 1 min zombie flick to be entered into a Good Game competition for a life size zombie called Brian. No-one involved had ever done any video work before and the end product was suitably terrible, but it was a lot a lot of fun to make!
Hoping you can enjoy it over the link too.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=519U3R6u-DE






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The spectators' paradox; an example

An unfortunate paradox that works equally well for Jackie Chan films and stunts
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The Child Snatching

I’m unsure at exactly what age the following story takes place. And I’m more than just a little afraid that I may’ve been much older than I would be willing to admit, even to myself. But without further ado, here is the story of my time as a child snatcher.

As our family continued to grow in number and size, the house seemed to get disproportionately smaller. When the family finally reached a grand size of eight, everyone was sharing a room. As a little boy growing up, I understandably wanted a room of my own. How I yearned to have the privacy and the grandeur of owning one’s own room. I’m not sure what circumstances occurred, whether siblings left, moved into the garage or something much more sinister happened, but finally my dream came true and I had a room of my own.

The grass was not greener…

I missed the conversations and tomfoolery of a room pal. I missed getting told off by parents for talking too long, and then talking some more.

I first tried to overcome this by being nonchalant, convincing myself I was above such childish non-sense.

It didn’t work. I was still a child after all (Or maybe not – see opening paragraph..).

Next, I would hide as an unknown occupant under my brother’s bed and silently partake in their conversations.

This ended in one of three ways,

I would fall asleep there.

But this happened rarely because:

My parents would discover I was missing and by using their magic child sensing radars, find me from under the bed and remove me.

The third ending however, was my favourite.

I would wait until they were sufficiently tired or asleep and start to push my knees up under the bed, slowly take their covers, softly stroke their hair.

Traumatising their little sleepy minds.

But most often it ended up with me making a BIG sound and running to my room where I would innocently pretend to be asleep, should my parents search. I think they may’ve figured it out though…

Sometimes I just needed a quick talk. It matter little if my brothers were already asleep, I would happily waltz in, grab a hold of their sleeping noses until they woke bright eyed and scared. Then I would joyfully cheer ‘You won’t remember this in the morning, hahaha’. And run away. They never did.

When I wasn’t doing this, I would turn to more drastic measures. I would snatch.

When my brothers were sleeping, I would sneak into their rooms and take them back to my own and slide them gently under my bed. Of course there was no conversation to be had, but I suppose it was the knowledge of having someone in the room that I was after all along.

 
Sometimes they would wake as I was snatching them, or as I was kicking them under the bed or sometimes I would wake to find them gone. Imagine the terror of waking as a child, in a dark, hard, strange environment. You try to sit up, but you are constricted and locked in space. A ceiling close to your head. I imagine it must’ve been similar to being buried alive.

This is what my brothers’ must have regularly experienced, but I cared little because sometimes, and these times were indeed the best, they would sleep the entire night under my bed, completely unaware. It was like achieving a successful mission.

Just in case anyone was worrying, I don’t do this any more. Probably.

My belated apologies lil’ bros….
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Radicool Chemistry

Though probably a whole lot less ups too

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A tour for all

It is no secret that I love watching le tour. I’m up to all hours of the morning, all alone in my house, watching every stage of the race – totally absorbed. I’m not even a cycling enthusiast, but there is something magical and hypnotic about le tour.

Is it the spectacular scenery, the tactics or the athleticism? Perhaps it is due to my poorly concealed love for lycra.

Regardless of what it is, I have noticed that not everyone is so affected as I. So I have come up with a couple of ideas to spice up the tour and make it amazing to all. Race organisers, take note:

Already this year the race organises have taken the initiative and shifted things around with more injures and crashes than ever before –(taking note from the success of motor racing and funniest home video [still awaiting sound effects]).They’re also taken note of the UFC’s rise to popularity: we’ve witnessed fist fights and even head-butting amongst the riders.

Good start.

Now to capitalise:

Mario Kart: No-one cannot enjoy Mario kart, and a blue turtle shell here or there would surely mix things up.

Zombie outbreak: Imagine the riders fleeing all across France with ‘rage-virus’ zombies chasing them down. It would work like ‘gang-tiggy’ – if you get caught, you help catch the remainders.

Night racing: This is so I can watch the race during the day. Nothing more. Although…..I do s’pose that is when the zombies are most active

Performance enhancing drugs: I know they are trying to stop all this, but goddamit I want to see super humans!!!

More lycra: The riders, the crowd, the trees, the cars, the road. Never have enough lycra.

I do apologise for the particularly poor artwork for this post. I am most ashamed …I didn’t quite grasp how difficult it would be to draw bikes and cyclists….So my last picture will in fact be a link. Enjoy.

Spandexman

Viva le tour
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Game Review: Crystal Caves

I’m sure that the title alone would invoke many (and mostly wonderful) emotions to those lucky enough to have played through this platforming ‘gem’ (ahh-Ziiiiiing). CC was released by Apogee Software in 1991 in three parts as Apogee would often do. The first part, Trouble with Twibbles, was shareware (free to everyone) with the next two parts Slugging it Out and Mylo versus the Supernova requiring monetary sacrifice. It was because of this release style that I got to play so many classics (or at least their shareware) which are pretty much the basis for my gaming enjoyment.

The game’s antagonist is Mylo Steamwitz, a ‘hair-brain scheme’ loving dude with his eyes on making a big buck quick. Though never quite getting there. He enters the crystal caves to get the capital needed for these investments. There he will take on all kinds of creatures and machinery, who are determined to stop him taking those crystals back with him.

The game has a dry sense of humour, which is particular to this era of gaming. You will even find puns taken at other games (Commander Keen’s helmet in deadly green sludge) and though you won’t ROFL you may chuck (the beginning of a chuckle which is cut short upon realising the joke probably doesn’t warrant a vocal laugh, but will still leave you feeling warm).

This game was great! It was to be said. Though, as a child, I never even approached finishing the game. But I have already accepted my total and utter uselessness as a child gamer, and so wasn’t too surprised to find the game significantly easier than I remembered when I recently played through it. Each episode took maybe a couple of hours, with the third episode amping up the difficulty notch a little.

The sound is terrible (read: awesome DOS sounds), but you have to love it for its simplicity. The jump sound will, however, drive you crazy.

For an early platformer, the controls and mechanics are pixel-perfect. There are also some interesting ideas at play, like reverse gravity, low gravity, and a plethora of switches requiring some basic problem solving.
8/10 – Classic DOS platforming….a little repetitive after three episode done back to back

The game is now freeware, so I’ve decided to post them up here. You will probably need a DOS emulator, such as DOSbox to run it in.

Crystal Caves 1

Crystal Caves 2

Crystral Caves 3

The original download I found was bugged out on a level, where you couldn’t enter the exit. This drove me a little crazy….These files are fine though
Also, a really cool site for more info and even an interview with the creator:
Perilious Crystal Caves Website [no affliation :( ]


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