Cyberzel's Mind: 05/01/2004

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Sunday, May 30, 2004

(note: I actually posted this on June 6th, but I started the post on the 30th of May and decided to stay with the draft date. It's a bit of a long post (to make up for the lack of updates ;) but hope you enjoy it :))

Teeheee! I went to an animecon this Saturday and it was great! Had my hair coloured again by a friend of mine (was about time too, my previous haircolour was not even recognized as such, I think. Look at my avatar pic and you'll get a pretty good idea of how my hair is at the mo.

For the con I was dressed (up a bit) like the (Japanese) girls in the Fruitsbook/mags (but I'm not gonna show a picture of it here..oh no...). Was with two friends of mine, both also dressed like Fruitspeeps :). When we arrived at the con we first tried to figure out what exactly the floorplan was, was a bit fuzzy, so we first checked out a room where some anime was shown (Azumanga Daioh). Then we strolled around a bit and waited for the Dealer room to be opened. We walked passed the 'queue' by accident when it was announced that it was now open...which from where we were standing, put us almost near the entrance of the dealer room. Which was good of course, we had first choice! Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed by what was for sale, (almost) no art books, not a lot of foreign stuff, not much stuff I am currently watching, and a lot of booths were offering more of the same. Except for one that was selling kubricks.

[off topic mode] A couple of months ago I was planning on writing a post on those kubrick thingies but decided to postpone it (which almost made me not write it at all), but those kubricks are really something. I'm so happy they had it at the con, made me enthusiastic all over again. :) Kubricks are bit like the inbetweens of Lego and playmobil. Kubricks are miniature figures (about 2.5"- 3" tall) which have original designs or are based on licensed characters. They come in mass productions but also in extremely limited editions. There are kubricks of any kind, you name it, they made it: Back to the Future, Spiderman, Metal Gear Solid, Kubrick (yes the man himself), Terminator, Edward Scissorhands, Monster's Inc, James Jarvis, Kinnikuman and so on. It is really something... For more Kubrick stuff go to the site of Medicom (the manufacturer, not a very clear site though and Japanese) itself or the fabulous ningyoushi site[/off topic mode]

I now have an Ultraman Kubrick (after thinking it over for ten minutes :D), of which is the pic below:

I also bought some Gashapons or Capsule Toys with Hikaru no Go figures (Sai and Hikaru himself..yaay, I love Sai! see also this posting) and with Zelda The Wind Waker figures:

The same stand as where they sold the Kubricks (friend of mine bought the Gloomy Bear and Kumakikai Kubricks which came with a dvd featuring clips of Mori Chax), sold key chains from Tezuka's Astro Boy:

And after doing some searching and comparison I decided to buy the Entrance Boxset of Azumanga Daioh!, the first dvd from .Hack/Sign and another film of Miyazaki: Kiki's Delivery Service (adorable movie). They also had the special 2 disc edition of Spirited Away but I already had the one-disc ed. and my wallet was empty... Hope Ghibli decides to release a dvd version of My Neighbour Totoro really soon 'cos I really really would love to have that one! I also would like to have a big plush doll from Totoro and all other Ghibli/Miyazaki movies which you can find for instance over here: Jlist
I did buy a postcard set from My neighbour Totoro, you can see it on the overview pic of my purchases:

After our visit to the dealer room and with empty pockets we decided to go watch an anime, one I can't remember anymore. There was also a Gameroom with several video games, they had Naruto 2, Ninja Gaiden, Soul Calibur, Pump it Up and so forth. Few competitions were held, one of them was a DDR competition. Me and my friends are really DDR-freaks/addicts but after seeing some people doing their moves...we decided not to enter the compo...yep we are scaredy little cats.. :D It did got me noticing the open-source DDR game: Stepmania. It's exactly like DDR only you can play it on your PC and download dwi's or steps of people such as you and I. Really interesting because you can take any mp3 you have and try to make your own steps on it, make your own choreography on it and let other people download it too. There is a whole community surrounding it. You can find some simfiles and other bemani freaks on the bemanistyle site. This way you can also play DDR games which did not get released in Europe or the US but solely in Japan and you can play anime or videogame themes/tunes. Way cool! (and maybe I can incorporate it in my thesis :D)

At six pm we went to the room where the Cosplay event was held. We did see cosplayers all day walking at the con grounds, having their pictures taken (even I was asked once if I was cosplaying... I said no, even though I was cosplaying, well sorta) and cosplaying as characters from Naruto (Kakashi was certainly popular), Chobits, Final Fantasy (especially Yuna), Escaflowne, Inuyasha, Streetfighter etcetera. The event itself took place in a theatre room with an actual stage where they could perform their (little) acts. Some were hilarious, some were funny and others were painful, but I certainly had a good laugh that evening :D

Overall it was a fun day, didn't see as much anime as we maybe thought we would and there wasn't any Totoro stuff or other rare stuff in the Dealer Room but still, I had fun dressing up, watching anime, watching the cosplayers doing their acts and wearing their outfits and playing in the gameroom. Animecon 2005... here we come!

Author: Z. » Comments:

animecon

Friday, May 28, 2004

I'm off to an animecon, just going for one day but have preparations to make :D. I will update afterwards and maybe give a small recount of the day and show off my new purchases :)

Author: Z. » Comments:

women games conference (2)

Monday, May 24, 2004

I mentioned a women in games conference a while ago, read about yet another conference for/by/addressing women and games, but forgot to put it on here so here it is: Women's Game Conference which runs concurrently with the Austin Game Conference September 9-10, 2004 at the Austin Convention Center.
"The conference will focus on a variety of women's topics in the computer and video game industry including examining career paths for women in the industry and issues related to working in the industry as women as well as how women are portrayed in games and women and girls as consumers of games".
That is a whole bunch of topics and issues, wonder if three days will be enough ;) But sounds interesting though. Too bad it's all the way in the States...Although the one in Portsmouth is a lot closer and still too expensive for my account *sigh*.

Author: Z. » Comments:

academic gamers

Just found a new link (via Gaimlee Mana)to add to my blogroll. Haven't taken a good look at the site itself but the url sure does sound interesting. quick look reveals that they have an annotated bibliography, reviews, ongoing reading discussions and a group blog which hosts 'serious discussion of video games and video game criticism'. Sounds good!

Author: Z. » Comments:

next-gen Nintendo

Friday, May 21, 2004

E3 isn't even over for a week, all those cool new DS, PSP and new games haven't even sunk in yet and already there is something new to lose my head over... Engadget has a posting on the next generation of Nintendo's consoles: the Game Boy Evolution and the GameCube Next. The next-gen Game Boy supposedly ditches the cartridges to make room for mini-discs, it should have DC quality like graphics and of course bluetooth.
The Gamecube Next has two different sets of specs for Nintendo hasn't decided on which to use, but it seems it will have a HD built in.
I think I should win the lottery or something, or maybe find myself a really good job, will I be able to pay for all this stuff (got to have it... being a freaky gamecollector (and not afraid to say so) and all)

Author: Z. » Comments:

bike your way out

Sunday, May 16, 2004

You can now race any PS2 racegame with a bike by using the Game bike. No more lazy sitting on the couch... got to make those legs do a bit of the work so use those pedals!
(via gizmodo)

Author: Z. » Comments:

Education Arcade summary day 1

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

On Water Cooler Games a summary of the panels of Day 1 of the Education Arcade which is held at the E3 (and organized by Henry Jenkins and MIT).

Author: Z. » Comments:

E3 press updates- day before days

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

OMG it has finally arrived... E3 is showing us the goods...
too much input! Lot's of info to digest... aargh. So where do I start?

Finally some (real) pics of the most anticipated gadgets in the gaming world (at least by me): Sony's PSP and Nintendo DS. The PSP looks a lot like the concept pics that were flowing around on the internet. But looking good! Sony has also announced the first PSP accessories which you can find here.
The Nintendo DS looks not exactly like the gamingworld pictured it but more like old-school multiscreen Game&Watches, that's at least what I get from the pictures. Can't wait to put my hands on both of the handhelds! (maybe I should get myself some sponsors, so I can actually buy those gadgets...Anyone?)

Sony PSP

Nintendo DS (still a prototype, via Gizmodo)

And then there is Zelda! Nintendo has released a movie of Zelda and screens (see also here) and it looks just stunning, freaking awesome (sorry, I can't put it in other words right now). They go for the more realistic look, away with cell-shaded. Yaay!

The Legend of Zelda

oh so much more...but...have to...stop...

Author: Z. » Comments:

blogger + Hello

Just trying out some stuff... found in blogger knowledge base a rather easy way to share my pics on this blog... by using Hello a piece of software installed on your computer which can connect to Blogger and put pics on your blog. No webspace/host needed and it automatically resizes the pics for you. It actually is a p2p program to share photo's directly with your friends but now you can also use it in addition to Blogger. All thanks to a partnership with Google...how convenient.

To test the thing I needed a pic so I grabbed one from my HD and this is the result :D:

edit: sigh where are those comments? supposedly there should be an option to comment on this post below, but where is it??

Author: Z. » Comments:

new look

Monday, May 10, 2004

so Blogger has thrown some new features into the bloggeraccounts. I thought to play with it a little, so here it is... a whole new look. But maybe I'll change it back. I don't like change very much... I was attached to my old tweaked template and to the Haloscan comments but now Blogger has comments too... which should I use? the comments function of Blogger looks okay: it doesn't have a popup but comments go in the same screen as the posting, there are several possibilities for comments but what I don't like is people who don't have a bloggeraccount can only react as Anonymous, no place for email or your own (avatar) name or url. There is no way of editing comments, there is only delete. And when using this commentsystem I can't use Haloscan so I lose all comments before today...Difficult choice... Think I switch back to Haloscan comments (now, if only I knew how... as this templatecode is driving me crazy!).

Other new features are the possibility for seperate pages for a posting (post pages), updating your blog via email, creating a profile and showing it on your blog. Underneath it all are codes that can be machine read and are standard compliant. All pretty nifty, it's free and rather easy to use (unless you want to tweak and CSS is not really your thing) and with those new features Blogger will probably get even more users (and Google some positive feedback)...
For more info on the new features you can go to the Blogger-Relaunch page

hmmm maybe this template is a little too pinkish...but it matches perfectly well with the colors of my avatarpic, should do some tweaking 'cos of course this layout is like so many others (clicked only once on a link on the frontpage of blogger and there it was someone had already chosen this template). I should probably start again with making my own template but I am too darn lazy. And have no inspiration whatsoever. Let's see how long this template will last, maybe I'll try out some others too.

Author: Z. » Comments:

phantom

hmm seems like the much-written-about Phantom isn't as phantomlike as most of us thought. Gamespy has an article with specs and pics.

Author: Z. » Comments:

Pac-Manhattan

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Pervasive games in New York Manhattan: Pacman is played on the streets by using WiFi, cell-phones and custom software. (via Smartmobs)

'Pac-Manhattan is a large-scale urban game that utilizes the New York City grid to recreate the 1980's video game sensation Pac-Man(...) A player dressed as Pac-man will run around the Washington square park area of Manhattan while attempting to collect all of the virtual "dots" that run the length of the streets. Four players dressed as the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde will attempt to catch Pac-man before all of the dots are collected.
Pac-man and the ghosts will be tracked from a central location and their progress will be broadcast over the internet for viewers from around the world".
It's a project from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program.
Must be a fun sight, seeing a real-life Pacman and real-life ghosts running around the city!

The project kind of reminded me of the project/game "Can you see me now?" from Blast Theory, an artist group located in London. The game has been played in several cities already (Rotterdam, Sheffield). The game has runners running around a city while trying to catch/track down online players with handheld computers and satellite receivers. The players they are trying to catch are not physically present so you have to trust your equipment. Really interesting game. Fun to play too. Hope to find more games like that.

Author: Z. » Comments:

WiFi bike

Who doesn't want to be online 24/7 and mobile? It is possible with the Magicbike which is 'a mobile WiFi hotspot and gives free Internet connectivity' everywhere. Hmm I could use one of those... would get me out of my room once in a while :D
It's not really a beauty, more nerdy-looking, but handy it is!