Humming Rain

Help Me Find an Android Game!

Posted on June 5, 2018 by Ian

I’ve ended up with a weird struggle on my hands. I’ve gotten to the point where I keep having small amounts of time I want to fill with a game. The trick is that I’m not at my computer (my main gaming platform), and I usually don’t have my 3DS with me. This leaves cell phone gaming, something I’ve never been great at knowing jack and/or shit about.

No problem, I thought. I turned to Google Play. I figured I could look for a game that was new, but had an interesting concept. Maybe support an indie dev in the process.

Y’all, I was wrong. Google Play’s discoverability, at least on the mobile version, blows. Combined with the mobile game marketplace currently being a flood of weird clones of other mobile games I’ve never heard of, licensed junkware, and the like, I ended up coming up with nothing. Except that realMyst is available, which is awesome, but I don’t think it’s what I’m looking for right now.

A screenshot of the game page for "Virtual Wild Horse Family Sim: Animal Horse Games" in the Google Play app store. The main image features a pair of horses apparently stomping on a white tiger in the middle of an American Midwest landscape.

I mean, I did find a “horse family” game where you stomp tigers to death. (What the HELL.)

So I turn to you, fine friends. What games do you recommend for Android? I’ve already played Monument Valley, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Star Realms, and PubG Mobile. This ideally would be a game that can be played with one hand, doesn’t require a ton of dexterity (I’m bad at touch screen joysticks), and won’t murder my battery in two minutes flat. Special note about card game recommendations: I’m open to card games, but I’d like to pre-veto Hearthstone and Magic. I also really dislike idle timer games.

With all that in mind, any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Posted in Video Games | 1 Comment

Gameboy Camera Zooming and Peripheral Bit Rot

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Ian

Source.

In very cool, very retro news, a photographer named Bastiaan Ekeler made a zoom lens for his Gameboy Camera. It’s a very impressive modification, letting him take full-frame shots of objects as far away as the Moon. There’s something incredibly charming about seeing such a well-done and modern modification for such an old device, especially for the results of a low-resolution four-shade black-and-white image. It’s a great fusion of the old and the new, and I’d like to think it breathed new life into the camera for him.

It also has me thinking about the peripherals of older game systems. Our emulators are getting better and better. It’s easy now to play games from the Atari era up through the Playstation 2. And that’s great! But there’s a whole class of games that are being left out. Those that depend on hardware peripherals designed for the original system.

I want to think about this more, do some research, and write it into its own post. But how do we really play Track & Field for the Nintendo Entertainment System without a Power Pad? How do we play Duck Hunt or Time Crisis without functioning light guns? Will Sega Bass Fishing really be fun without the rod/reel controller? Can you imagine Dance Dance Revolution without the dance pad?

What are we going to do to preserve the full gameplay of those games? Is there a way to make DIY equivalents of those accessories (relatively) easily available? I don’t know yet, but it’s got me thinking.

The Possibilities of Low-Tech Internet

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Ian

A "Phelps Electromotor Printing Telegraph" from about 1880.

I’ve been thinking about this article on building a low-tech internet a lot lately. It outlines the possibilities of using cheaper technologies, including basic Wi-Fi, to share network connections over long distances.

My primary interest in this is providing alternatives to the large ISPs in Seattle and other places. With net neutrality continually on unstable footing, a small ISP run as a cooperative, non-profit, or something similar could provide an excellent alternate option for people who decide that maybe they don’t want Comcast to decide what they can look at efficiently. Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged accessibility, alteratives, cooperative, homelessness, internet, isp, socialism, technology | Comments Off

Home Improvement

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Ian

I have built a swing for my enormous plush dinosaur, and this pleases me immensely. (It also gives me somewhere to put him that is out of the way but still very accessible/cute.)

A three foot tall plush dinosaur sits in a handmade wood-and-rope swing, suspended from a bedroom ceiling, with its back to the wall and its face facing the camera. It has a happy, wide-open mouth.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off

Neat Gaming News!

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Ian

Xbox adaptive controller base surrounded by several possible add-on components.

A round-up of some of the gaming news I’ve seen recently that is very, very cool. To me, the coolest kid. >_>;;

Xbox Adaptive Controller from Microsoft

A controller that’s made from the ground-up to be customized by people with disabilities to fit their unique individual needs. This is a very cool project, and I’m really surprised (and delighted) to see Microsoft leading the charge. It really doesn’t seem like their usual M.O., but I’m happy to give credit where it’s due. This seems like a very well-designed piece of technology, and is way more affordable than the custom rigs that people have needed to make before (which can run into the thousands of dollars). And it works with Windows 10, not just Xbox One! 😀

Polygon has good coverage of the adaptive controller, if you want to know more.

PUBG Mobile…on PC

I enjoy PlayerUnknown’s Battleground’s mobile experience, but I personally prefer the pc version. Fumbling with a touchscreen and repeatedly shooting off stray rounds when I was just trying to adjust my view can get really frustrating. But a lot of my friends don’t have computers that can run the full PC game. What am I to do?

Turns out Tencent Gaming has my back! They’ve released an official emulator to play PubG Mobile’s android version on PC, with a mouse and keyboard. And it’s free. The only downside is it only pairs you with other PC players, so your mouse and keyboard controls don’t give you an unfair advantage, which means I still can’t play with a friend who’s on, say, an iPad. But hopefully this is lighter on the system than the full version, and I’ll get lucky and be able multiplayer with my friends on a PC after all. ^^

Open Source Neatness!

There’s a cool looking open-source game engine called Godot. I don’t know a ton about it yet, but it looks cool and shiny and I wanted to share. I’m going to be poking at it soon to see if I think I can handle some basic game development on it. I keep wanting to make a computer RPG… Plus I’d be able to develop under Linux, which is a platform that is damn hard to find game development tools on.

Posted in Game Development, Technology, Video Games, Writing About Games | Tagged accessibility, android, gamedesign, gamedevelopment, games, pcgaming, pubg, videogames | Comments Off

Week Wrap-up 14 May 2018 – 20 May 2018

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Ian

Photo of a monitor displaying a green-on-black website with monospaced font. The headline reads "Welcome to Testing123."

Web dev is hard.

Hoooof. Most of this week was taken up by me still recovering from that cold I mentioned last week. Thank you, lingering cough! If this cough could fuck off right now I’d be really grateful.

But besides that…

I misremembered the date of my next interview, so I have an extra six days to study! Yesssss.
I finished Spring semester of school this week with flying colors and only moderately high stress. I’m taking the summer off, and I’m going to try and wait on signing up for Fall until I have gainful employment lined up again, since the registration period is so long.
I’ve been reading through How Linux Works (2nd edition) by Brian Ward. So far my reaction is “THIS is the manual that Linux should come with.” So, you know, it’s been good. I’m only 10% in but it’s explaining everything from a very base level in a very approachable way. Like usual, good work No Starch Press.
I just finished reading Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. It only took me forever and a day. I very much liked it, and it’s interesting to see the Gethenians’ approach to gender, and how the narrator very slowly Gets It more over the course of the book. Though the narrator definitely has some Toxic Masculinity going on, but I think that Le Guin knows and acknowledges that as a flaw, at least implicitly. Also kemmer seems really convenient (in a good way)? Like “oh cool I’ll only be distracted by horniness a few days a month, but those few days will be RAD and then I can get back to things.” The descriptions of crossing the ice are a thing of beauty, too. I should probably let any thoughts on the book bake more before I talk about it, but those are some initial impressions. Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Technology, Video Games | Tagged books, decluttering, fallout4, jobhunt, linux, programming, technology, writing | Comments Off

Week Wrap-up: April 30th 2018 – May 13th 2018

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Ian

A pixelated, limited-color pallete version of a photo of Jerry the leopard gecko.

Did some experimenting with making a photo low-fi and ended up with this! Legible and an order of magnitude smaller than the original fie.

It’s been two weeks! Oh no! :O

Things have been busy, brain has been stormy, but the world keeps chuggin’ along. And while that’s been happening:

Passed the first technical interview as I chug along through Big Tech Company’s interview process. This was the coding interview, so I’m very pleased (and, honestly, a bit surprised) that I passed. The next interview is at the end of the month, and will involve more general technical knowledge (and maybe more coding-related stuff). Time to study up on Linux and networking. Joy?
School is wrapping up and I’m looking down the barrel of two final projects that are due in on Tuesday. I’ve got one that’s mostly done and one I haven’t started, so that’s cool. The one I haven’t started promises to be more tedious than difficult, but I still Have a Concern. Once these are done (and I register for fall classes), I’ll be free from grad school all summer, though, which should be really nice. (Free time!)
I continue to be bad at humaning. Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Technology, Video Games, Writing | Tagged collaboration, drawing, fallout4, jobhunt, linux, mastodon, organization, sick, social media, twitter | Comments Off

Week Wrap-up: 23 April 2018 – 29 April 2018

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Ian

A picture of a dirt path going away from the viewer through a forest. Ferns and shrubs line the path.

It’s been a week of bad sleep and general busy-ness. But other stuff happened, too.

I finally started cleaning up my space in the apartment and it feels good. I now have a huge pile of papers I need to scan but at least the decluttering has taken a nice lurch forward.
I didn’t study enough yet for my interview next week. Which: AAAAaaaAaa. It’ll probably be fine. Probably. (Pssst I’m nervous.)
I keep missing small deadlines and letting things slip, so I’ve decided to not take any grad school classes in summer session so I can try to get back on track and get my life a little more bolted down.
Fallout 4 continues to be good and satisfying and I wish I could spend more time playing it.
I think I’ve been getting worse at dealing with people? Which is not heartening! But I am also writing this on a Sunday, which has been my worst day of the week for the past while, so grain of salt.
I keep not doing much because depression. It sucks.
Started outlining a Fallout 4 mod that I probably won’t have time to do. I’m exploring the idea of a post-apocalyptic Seattle that’s constantly very cold. With some survival mechanics. It could be good!
I may have found my next writing project. Misfit squad of furry folk being sent on a suicide mission! Good times.
It’s getting warm! The sun is beautiful and I am becoming a sweaty mess. Need to get some shorts and tanktops, I think.
I’ve started trying to eat a lot more protein which is an adventure in itself.
The lizards continue to be very good. I wish I could hang out with ’em more though.

And that’s a very rough summary of this week! How’s everyone else been doing?

Posted in Game Development, Personal, Pets, Writing | Tagged check in, depression, fallout4, gamedesign, games, gradschool, jobhunt, mental_health, modding, sleep, videogames, writing | Comments Off

Computers Hate Us Now, Because Capitalism

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Ian

NASA engineer Margaret Hamilton standing next to a stack of binders containing her program's results. The stack is as tall as she is.

These were the days! (Yes, I realize that’s code, not manuals. Pretend they are manuals.) Source.

So, computers kind of hate us these days. Well, hate is too strong a word. And it’s not actually the computer’s fault. So, I guess–

“Ian you’re doing that thing where you ramble instead of actually starting to talk about the topic.”

Right. So, recently a fellow by the name of @ajroach42 went on an interesting jag on Mastodon. They later turned it into a blog post, which you can view at http://ajroach42.com/observations-on-modern-computing-the-last-10-years-were-a-misstep/. The tl;dr version: computers are now less and less about empowering the user. Many things have gotten easier, but at the cost of only being able to do them a very certain way, and not understanding the underlying mechanisms by which they do them. Users are no longer empowered to learn and grow. Instead they have to follow the nice little track a given company (Facebook, Microsoft, etc) have dug for them, or their computer will simply not work to do what they need.

(Seriously though, please go read it, in spite of my tl;dr version. It’s well worth your time.) Continue reading →

Posted in Technology | Tagged capitalism, computers, technology, userempowerment, wtf | 1 Comment

Humming Rain

Help Me Find an Android Game!

Gameboy Camera Zooming and Peripheral Bit Rot

The Possibilities of Low-Tech Internet

Home Improvement