Frets on Fire: Be A Guitar Hero for Free!

One of the reasons why I wanted to buy a Sony PlayStation 2 a few months ago was a game called Guitar Hero. I enjoyed playing and watching people play it. But I had to defer my PS2 purchase because of the introduction of the PS3 -- I didn't want to get stuck with an obsolete game console.

Enter Frets on Fire, the open source equivalent of Guitar Hero. So this free, open source and multi-platform game can be played on a PC running Windows, Linux and even Apple computers.

One big advantage Frets on Fire has over Guitar Hero is a normal computer keyboard can be used in lieu of those expensive guitar-shaped game controller. It can be freely downloaded here.

Note to self: buy a cheap CDR King keyboard and play Frets on Fire this weekend!

technorati tags:guitar hero, open source, gaming

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Low-End Gaming for the Apple Mac

My kid (see avatar) loves to play computer games. For the past few months, he's been playing emulated Game Boy games on the iBook he inherited from me when I upgraded to a MacBook. Seeing how he loves to play games, I decided to up the ante a bit -- I downloaded SNES9x and some ROMS and tried playing with old Super NES favorites.

But its a pain to play Super NES games using the keyboard (doubly difficult with laptop keyboard) so I stopped playing for a while. Then a discussion at my favorite internet forum has tipped me off that cheap gamepads can be used on the Mac. The gamepad they were talking about seems to be only available from certain retailers from TipidPC.So I headed on over to CD-R King and browsed if they have any inexpensive gamepads and I found a USB dual-controller and it only costs Php 220 (around $4). Since its quite cheap, I bought one and tried it. It took me a few tries and I wasn't able to make it work immediately. So I fired up Parallels and ran Windows XP and it worked on my Windows-based SNES emulator! It's a hassle to start up my Windows XP installation on my MacBook if I wanted to play but then again I bought cheap controllers so I have to live with the consequences.

But after a few days, I was able to make it work with SNES9x that runs on Mac OS X! Now I can enjoy low-cost retro gaming on my MacBook and it only cost me $4! It may have taken me a few days to figure out how to make it work but then again, the bottomline is I made it work! Now, who says Macs are not made for gaming?

GameBUS: XBOX 360 LAN Party on Wheels

Local entrepreneurs should take a look at this business idea: An American company has converted an RV to accomodate 16 flat panel TVs hooked up to 16 XBOX 360. The XBOX 360 is then connected to each other, allowing multi-player games inside the RV itself. The company is aptly called GamerBUS.

I'm sure this will be a hit locally considering that gaming has really made it big here. Trivia: Did you know that at least 80% of the income of local "internet cafe" comes from gaming?

Here's a Sneak Peak of the Wonderful Wii

Mere words are not enough to describe the
picture shown above (again from Engadget)

Trimersion: Virtual Reality is now... a reality?

Well, it seems the technology is already mature and now is as a good time as ever to release a product like the Trimersion: a combination Head-mounted display and a "gun" controller" which then allows its users to play First-Person Shooters (FPS) and immerse themselves fully in the games virtual environment.

But reading about how head-mounted displays affect its users (reports of nausea, dizziness and even vertigo is not unusual) Trimersion must be using a different approach in their displays to avoid such adverse effects. Costing $395 (approximately Php 20,000) the Trimersion costs as much as a games console.

If given a chance,would I get one? Well, the way it makes the models look like a total dork, I think I'll pass...

DS Lite Too Expensive? Try the Neo Double Games Lite

Last weekend, I had a conversation with my brother who has been working in Shanghai, China for the past 10 or so years. He told me that he has found a lot of "unlicenced" Nintendo hardware floating around the market there.

This is probably one of the things he is talking about:



The abomination beside a genuine NDS Lite is called the Neo Double Games Lite. As seen on the picture, the Neo Double Games Lite looks a bit like the real NDS with a couple of major differences such as:

• It has smaller screens
• The screen itself is the "cartridge
  
• Its lower screen doesn't even work, it is actually a spare "game".
  
• To change game, you pop out the upper screen and swap it out with the lower screen.

But seriously, the only thing that made the Neo Double Games Lite is its outside resemblance with the NDS Lite when closed. Once opened and turned on, its just a very cheap knock-off that would probably be available in your neighborhood flea market this coming holidays.



Full review of this wonderful unit at Nintendospin.com

GameSpot Scoop: Playstation 3 Packages "seen in the wild"

Playstation fanatics rejoice! GameSpot spots Playstation 3 so it only means one thing -- the PS3 is for real!

White Things: Seeing Things in a Different "Lite"

Yesterday, I finally got a replacement for my NDS Lite. I could've waited for the delivery of the pink or black variant but I opted for the "Polar White" one because it will go well with my other white things.


On the picture is my 3-year-old Apple iBook, my 3G 10 GB iPod and the newest member of the white family, the NDS Lite! Pardon the rather blurry picture because it was taken using the dinky camera of my Treo 650.

Looking at those gadgets makes me see things in a different "Lite".

A Buffalo for Portable Gaming Goodness

Buffalo Micro Pads that is...



This tiny controller slips into a PC's USB Port and its size makes it an ideal gaming laptop accessory.

"Pirated" Virtual Weapons from China?

First, pirated DVD's and CD's, then they came up with "pirated eggs", now some enterpreneural Chinese are selling pirated MMORPG weapons from The Legend of Mir.

According to INQ7.Net:

The software weapons -- essentially just bits of data -- are given out to players at high levels of the massively popular game "Legend of Mir," produced by Shanghai-based Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd.

A former Shanda manager, Wang Yihui, is accused of manipulating the game's software to illicitly award weapons such as the highly coveted "dragon slaying blade," the Oriental Morning Post said.

Nintendo DS: It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

Nintendo made waves when the DS was fist introduced in the market -- it was (and so far, still is) the only handheld console with two screen, one of which is a touch-screen. Its wi-fi capability was also a feature that gave the DS more "oooph". Its "Lite" variant further pushed the envelope with its brighter screen and better battery life. Soon afterwards, Nintendo released a browser to allow its users to surf the internet. Now, it looks like Nintendo is adding more "ooomph" to the DS line.

One of the possible upcoming accessory for the DS is a music player. This accessory is for the slot 2 of the device (the slot for GBA cartridges) and to play music, it requires an SD card which will give the Nintendo DS a capacity of up to 2GB which is approximately enough for 500 very high quality music files. The unit itself is said to have a standard headphone port.

Now, if only I can get my hands on my handheld now (its being replaced for having a stuck pixel). :(

Oh, and apparently, this thingie is also compatible with the Game Boy Advance units (GBA, GBA SP and GBA Micro).

Doraemon TV Game

This Doraemon TV Game looks pretty cool. The character in the game is controlled using the helicopter thingie that kids and put on their heads. The downside is once this gets popular, I'm sure a lot of dizzy kids will be roaming around the streets and the sales of Bonamine will skyrocket.