Saturday, 21 May 2022

Fixing XCom Enemy Unknown (and Enemy Within) in Steam on Ubuntu 22.04

I've recently installed Ubuntu 22.04 on a new desktop PC (actually an old upgraded and repurposed Chromebox) and wanted to have some games available to play. This thing doesn't have much power, but I figured I could have a few things on hand and as I used to run XCom on a Celeron N4000 with 2GB of RAM I should be able to get it running on this.

Except it wouldn't...

These are the steps I took to fix it. It might be that not all of them are or were actually required. In all honesty if you're following this I would probably go through the steps in reverse order as I wouldn't be surprised to find that the last step fixes everything!

Symptoms

Clicking on "PLAY" from Steam brings up the launcher where I can select XCOM Enemy Unknown or XCOM Enemy Within. Selecting either choice closes the launcher and in Steam I can see the game running, but after a few seconds it stops.

The Fix

In Steam - right click - Browse local files

In file manager - right click - Open in Terminal

In terminal run:

./xcom.sh

This gives the following error:

/home/ryan/Storage/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/XCOMLauncher: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL2-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

XCOM - XCOMLauncher returned no game

XCOM - No game launched

Let's get libsdl2 installed properly:

sudo apt-get install -y libsdl2*

And try again:

./xcom.sh

A different error now:

/home/ryan/Storage/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/binaries/linux/../../binaries/linux/game.x86_64: error while loading shared libraries: libopenal.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Let's try installing libopenal:

sudo apt-get install -y libopenal

And try again:

./xcom.sh

Huh, a new error:

XCOM - XCOMLauncher returned Enemy Unknown

XCOM - Launching

szCmd: /bin/sh -c '"/home/ryan/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh" "steam://run/200510"' &

Dumped crashlog to /home/ryan/.local/share/feral-interactive/XCOM/crashes//7b96470c-1b6e-2b1f-2808ea0b-2c744dee.dmp

/home/ryan/Storage/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/binaries/linux/xcom.sh: line 43:  9250 Aborted                 (core dumped) ${DEBUGGER} "${GAMEBINARY}" $@

To fix this we need to rename some files:

<STEAMDIR>/steamapps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/engine/splash/pcconsole/splash.bmp to OLDsplash.bmp

<STEAMDIR>/steamapps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/xew/engine/splash/pcconsole/splash.bmp to OLDsplash.bmp

Finally we can now launch the game using the PLAY button in Steam! Yay!

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Saturday, 3 January 2015

Yet MORE Fantasy Life stuff!

A few more items for you:

RewardPassword
Honey PuddingReveria
Butler's OutfitAt your service
Cute OutfitCutie pie
Dancer's OutfitLady of the ball
Dragon Tamer CostumeDragon tamer
Spring Indoor Decoration SetSpring flowers
Spring Outdoor Decoration SetLife in bloom
Mysterious CostumeAbracadabra
Elegant OutfitCute chic
Frilly OutfitFrilliant!
Cacto CostumePrickly poser
Ninja CostumeVanishing act
Fluffkin CostumeFluffkin facade
Plushling CostumePlushling parade
Princely OutfitPrincely threads
Snowman CostumeSlippery snowman
Laura's HatLaura lookalike
Yuelia's OutfitAll of a flutter
Teddy BearYummy honey bear
Cuddly Sea TurtleTimid turtle

That's all for now!
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MORE Fantasy Life stuff!

Some more codes for free stuff in Fantasy Life for 3DS!

Like before, speak to the Password Clerk in the Post Office. Again these are from tweets by Nintendo of Europe:

(Note for above, actual passwords are "Fiery fiend", "Toil and trouble", "Trick or treat?" and "Jack-o'-Lantern"!) (Note for above, actual password is "Fun in the sun") (Note for above, actual password is "Seasick sailors")
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Fantasy Life!

My daughter and I have a new 3DS-based obsession, Fantasy Life! We both received copies for Christmas and are loving it.

If you're enjoying it too, you can get bonus content from the Password Clerk in the Post Office from the following tweets from Nintendo of Europe:

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Monday, 9 December 2013

Want a new console? Wii U says "HELLO!"

So Christmas is coming and you want to treat yourself and/or your family to a new console. Xbox One and PS4 have just launched and that's all everyone seems to be talking about. The next gen has arrived, hurrah! So which one should you be dashing down to the shops to pick up?

Neither.

The console you want is the Wii U.

Lets look at price first. I've taken these prices from Amazon UK as that is where I do most of my shopping and they usually have good prices.

An Xbox One and Call of Duty Ghosts will set you back a total of £477.99. That's £429.99 for the console and £48.00 for the game. Note that I selected that game only because it is available on Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U to help illustrate my point.

So what can £477.99 (or less) get you if you want to go for the Wii U?

Wii U Premium Pack - £239.99 (includes Lego City Undercover and Rayman Legends)
Call of Duty Ghosts - £44.99
Super Mario 3D World - £39.99
Pikmin 3 - £31.99
Zombi U - £15.99
New Super Mario Bros U - £39.99
Batman Arkham Origins - £22.49
Need For Speed Most Wanted U - £19.95
Deus Ex - £16.99

Total - £472.37

I've selected the games listed above partly at random, but they are also among the best games available for the console and includes the obligatory CoD: Ghosts.

Turning our attention to PS4, you are looking at a total of £396.14. That's £349.99 for the PS4 and Call of Duty Ghosts will set you back £46.15.

If we drop the two Mario games from our list above, we get the price down to £392.39.

Xbox One and a single game OR a Wii U with TEN games.

or

PS4 and a single game OR a Wii U with EIGHT games.

And let's not forget that if you already have a Wii at home you can use all your existing controllers (and other peripherals) on your Wii U so you might already have everything you need for multiplayer action, rather than shelling out £49.00 for a second PS4 pad or £44.00 for a second Xbox One pad.

We should also note that if you get tired of the eight or ten games you get with your Wii U and you already have a Wii you can play all your old games on your Wii U. Try loading up one of your PS3/Xbox 360 games on their next gen replacements and you're not going to get very far!

So to reiterate the central message of this post, forget PS4, forget Xbox One. If you want a new console AND some awesome games, get a Wii U.
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Saturday, 30 November 2013

Finished!

My effort for Charity Game Jam, COMMANDO V ALIENS TURBO is finished and uploaded, you can grab it here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12895849/CvAT.zip

Or search for it on the Charity Game Jam website. It's a simple game, but if you enjoy it please consider donating some money to a very worthy cause. And even if you don't enjoy it, please consider donating!

All the models and textures came from the Unity Asset Store. Some graphics for the menu were made using the CoolText website. Some of the sound effects were from freesound whilst some were taken from the Unity Asset Store.

I enjoyed putting this together, despite some very frustrating moments! It could definitely do with a bit more polish in a few places, but I just don't have the time to do that before the deadline. I might revisit it later, but I already have new projects in mind that I want to tackle.

Enjoy!
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Friday, 29 November 2013

Charity Game Jam

I'm brushing off my (very) rusty programming skills this weekend to try and create a game. I've got the next 3 days to work on it. Should be fun!

My son came up with the idea of doing this. He recently did the SpeccyJam with a friend from school, so he's a dab hand at it now! We're both using Unity 3D for our efforts, will post updates and progress here.

Wish us luck!

Should have probably mentioned that we are doing this in support of Charity Game Jam! Find out more in the following video:


Our chosen charity will be Child's Play.



Update @ 11:05

I've been beavering away for a couple of hours and it's time for a work-in-progress screenshot from the Unity editor:


All the assets used in the game are from the fantastic Unity Asset Store. I will, of course, be compiling a list of what I have used later...

Update @ 14:50

Had a small disaster just before lunch and lost a lot of work, but in the aftermath I decided on a change of direction for the environment in the game and I think it's all the better for it.

Latest screenshot, again from within the Unity editor:


Look at that horrible creature's face all lit up with the muzzle flash! Gives you chills, doesn't it?

Update @ 16:00

Calling it a day now as the rest of the family is due home shortly. Enjoyed myself today and am quite pleased with the progress. Lots to get done tomorrow, but I am fairly confident of knocking it all into shape.

One more screenshot to end the day on:


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Sunday, 2 June 2013

My Next Gen

As I write this, E3 is less than two weeks away. Sony and Microsoft have already announced some details of their new machines, with more to come at their E3 conferences. The next generation is looming and will most likely be with us before the end of the year. So I need to decide which way to jump.

I'll tackle the two machines in a separate post, but first I think a few questions about the next generation need answering...

1) Didn't I already buy a next gen console? The Wii U?

While I love my Wii U and it has some fantastic games that are only possible on that platform, it's probably only brought Nintendo up to the current gen (i.e. 360 and PS3) standards. It's not clear at this stage how much support it's going to receive from publishers as we have already seen some high profile cancellations, including Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Online, Sega's Aliens: Colonial Marines (a blessing in disguise probably, considering the reviews received for other versions - although wasn't the Wii U version previously touted as the "definitive" version as the gamepad could be used as a motion tracker?) and EA's Battlefield 3.

The once exclusive Rayman Legends from Ubisoft has now gone multi-platform and the ready-to-release Wii U version has been delayed to almost a year from it's originally planned release date so all versions can release simultaneously.

Will I be able to play FIFA 14 on Wii U later this year? And will that version be on a par with the 360/PS3/PC versions (FIFA 13 on Wii U was based on an older version of the game and was missing a lot of the features of other versions, for instance the fantastic Ultimate Team mode)? What about the next Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed games?

Only time will tell, but I suspect that to experience all the best games on offer I will need something else to complement my Wii U.

2) Do we actually need a next gen console?

This is an excellent question. When Sony did their big PS4 unveiling they talked about a lot of features that I am just not interested in. All the on-line streaming of your game shenanigans? No thanks. I know Twitch.tv is very popular and lots of people regular watch players streaming their matches of Starcraft 2, League of Legends, etc., but I've never looked at any of that stuff.

And Microsoft seem to have a huge focus on the way Xbox One will communicate/control your TV viewing. They would like you to think that this is a very innovative new feature, but really they're just lifting the idea from Google TV. Besides, I suspect that this feature either won't be available outside of the US, or will be highly diluted by comparison to what is offered to customers in the US. We're still waiting for Nintendo's TVii feature to launch in Europe and that console has been available over seven months now!

So I don't think I need any of the "exciting" new features, so it's all down to the games. But are the games actually going to be much better? It's rare that I load up a game on PS3 or 360, even those from the early days of this generation, and think that the graphics are awful and this game would be so much better with double the RAM and double the processing power behind it.

Do I need to spend hundreds of pounds to see a small visual upgrade in my games? I can't help but feel that the improvement isn't going to be the equivalent of moving from standard definition TV to high definition TV. More on a par of the difference between 720p and 1080p. It's definitely there, but really, is it making that much of a difference?

3) What do I do with all my old games and consoles?

It appears that we're going to see no backwards compatibility on either the PS4 or Xbox One. So to make use of your existing games collection you will have to keep your old consoles. That's great if you have the room to leave them set up alongside your shiny new purchase, but the reality is that a lot of people won't have the space - either that or their wife/girlfriend/partner won't be impressed by the addition of another box under the TV and the old one will have to go to make room for it!

A lot of people will probably contemplate selling off their old consoles and games to fund their new console, but can you really face not playing some of those great games from this gen again? No more inFamous? No more Uncharted? No more Gears of War? No more Halo 4? No more Red Dead Redemption? Not sure I want to go down that route.

4) Can I actually afford any of this?

Both the PS4 and Xbox One consoles are up for pre-order at Amazon, both priced at £599.99 and at Zavvi, this time at £399.99. I hope that Amazon are wildly off the mark with their prices, but I suspect Zavvi might be a lot closer, if not right on the money. £400 for a new console with no games to play on it? Woah...

And speaking of games, Zavvi are listing a number of PS4 titles for pre-order at £49.99. I'm a little surprised here and think Zavvi might have shot themselves in the foot by getting these listed early. I wouldn't be surprised to see the recommended retail price for PS4/Xbox One games being another £5 to £10 more than that.

Why? Because games for these new consoles are going to become far more expensive to make. If we have greater graphical fidelity, that means that we are going to see much more detail in textures and models. That means that those textures and models are going to have to be higher resolution (in the case of textures) and more complex (in the case of models). Both of those will take longer to create, leading to an increased amount of development time, which equates to a higher salary paid to the development team. That increases the cost to produce the game which means that the publisher is going to pass that price on to the consumer.

Offline multiplayer? How much is it going to cost me to sit on the sofa with both of my kids playing a game together? One of the things I loved about Wii U is that Nintendo made it backwards compatible not only with all the Wii software, but with all the Wii controllers and peripherals too. I bought a Wii U and Nintendoland and using my existing collection of Wii controllers we could have a fantastic 4 player game with the whole family involved. If I want to play four players on either the PS4 or Xbox One, how much am I going to have to spend? Another £150? Probably.

It begs the question why Sony and Microsoft couldn't have made their new consoles backwards compatible with controllers in the same way Nintendo have? Instead Sony have forced the Move technology on us by including it in the controller, rather than as an optional peripheral and Microsoft have done the same with Kinect by including it in the box.

The obvious answer is: money. They both stand to make money from consumers by forcing us to pay again for additional controllers. So we're now looking at paying in the region of £500+ for a new console, an extra controller and a copy of FIFA 14 come Christmas? I doubt that I'll be paying that.

Conclusion

Unless there are some BIG surprises at E3 and over the coming months regarding cost, I think I will be waiting a while to join the next generation. I just can't justify the cost.

As a side note, if I was offered the two consoles for free and told I could only take one, right now I would probably take... the PS4. Purely because where my existing consoles are setup I don't think I would have enough room for Kinect to work, which pretty much rules out the Xbox One for me. Nice one, Microsoft.
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Sunday, 25 November 2012

Minecraft is coming to Raspberry Pi! (With FAQ!)


Yes, Minecraft really is coming to the Raspberry Pi! Ever since the Pi was announced I am fairly sure that one of the most frequently asked questions on the forums has been whether or not it will be able to run Minecraft. There have been numerous attempts to get it running, with oodles of threads created over in the forum.

People have had some success getting the server running, but as far as I am aware running Minecraft itselt has remained frustratingly out of reach. People have suggested porting other similar software (like Minetest) and one enterprising father and son combination has even created their own clone called Blocky which is well worth checking out!

But yesterday changed EVERYTHING, with an official announcement from Mojang that they were bringing Minecraft to Raspberry Pi by porting Minecraft Pocket Edition. This has obviously led to a flurry of interest and excitement in both the Minecraft and Raspberry Pi communities with loads of questions flying back and forth. In order to attempt to answer some of these, allow me to present the Minecraft Pi Edition FAQ!

Minecraft Pi Edition FAQ

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a sandbox construction game where you can build anything you can imagine. It also has scary monsters, like creepers who tend to want to destroy what you have built.

If you want to know more, just go to YouTube and type in Minecraft!

Source: http://www.mojang.com/games/

What is Minecraft Pi Edition?

Minecraft Pi Edition is a version of Minecraft: Pocket Edition that comes with a revised feature set and support for multiple programming languages.

Source: http://www.mojang.com/2012/11/minecraft-is-coming-to-the-raspberry-pi/

What is Minecraft Pocket Edition?

Minecraft Pocket Edition is a cut-down version of Minecraft for Android and iOS devices.

The current version of the software concentrates on the creative building and the primitive survival aspect of the game, and does not contain all the features of the PC and Xbox 360 releases. The current release allows for multiplayer across a local wireless network.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft#Minecraft.C2.A0.E2.80.93_Pocket_Edition

How much will it cost?

Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero.

Source: http://www.mojang.com/2012/11/minecraft-is-coming-to-the-raspberry-pi/

Will it have multiplayer?

Unclear at present, although the following comment in the original post on Mojang's website suggest that it will have LAN multiplayer:

"You could organise the cheapest LAN party of all time..."

It's worth noting that the current version of Pocket Edition does support multiplayer across a local wireless network.

Source: http://www.mojang.com/2012/11/minecraft-is-coming-to-the-raspberry-pi/

What will I be able to do with it?

The possibilities are massive. You could organise the cheapest LAN party of all time, or use the Pi to learn the fundamentals of programming on a miniscule budget. It’s like hacking your way into Minecraft and modifying the game world with code, a bit like being Notch, Jeb, or Nathan, but arguably more fun and less stressful.

You can start by building structures in the traditional Minecraft way, but once you’ve got to grips with the in-game features, there’s opportunity to break open the code and use programming language to manipulate things in the game world. You’ll be learning new skills through Minecraft.

Source: http://www.mojang.com/2012/11/minecraft-is-coming-to-the-raspberry-pi/

What programming languages will I be able to use?

Not known at present, as soon as more details are available I will update this!

Where can I see it in action?

You can see it in action here!

Source: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2603

When will it be released?

"Soon" is all we know at present. The announcement was made on 24 November 2012, and was described as "available to download soon" but specific timescales are not yet known.

Source: http://www.mojang.com/2012/11/minecraft-is-coming-to-the-raspberry-pi/

Will there be server software?

Not known at present, as soon as more details are available I will update this!

How are they doing 3D in an X Window?

From Daniel Frisk on Twitter: "actually, it's "fake". We check if the win dimensions has changed and if so recreate the glucontext"

Source: http://twitter.com/danfrisk

I thought Minecraft needed lots of memory? Will I need the 512Mb version of the Raspberry Pi?

Daniel Frisk has said "we'll try to at least run it on the 256"

(It's worth mentioning that my son has an Archos 101 Android tablet that has 256Mb of RAM and that can run Minecraft Pocket Edition. However that's obviously no guarantee that the Pi Edition will also work in 256Mb of RAM.)

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Sunday, 27 May 2012

HDMI to VGA for Pi

The 19" TV in my study only has one HDMI port. To be fair, this is not uncommon on a screen of this size, but it did mean faffing about with a HDMI switch if I wanted to connect my Pi.

Fortunately someone over on the official Rasberry Pi forums found this at Amazon:


I decided to grab one and had been using it quite happily until today...

It seems that the HDMI-to-VGA cable I have (the Amazon neewer one) draws some power from my Pi. Presumably it needs some to make the chip work that converts the signal. I've no idea how much exactly, but it might explain some of the power problems I've been having!

I played with Debian a lot yesterday, fiddling about with configurations and trying various games (Scummvm, Doom, Quake 3, Pingus) all without any issues.

Today I decided to try out OpenELEC and kept having problems with the screen on my monitor blanking out for a second or so and then coming back. Very annoying. I tried switching to a normal HDMI cable and the problem went away, so I concluded that it must be this cable drawing power from my Pi.

Now as I was saying, I was having some power problems previously, even with a genuine Samsung Galaxy S II charger, which I think without checking provides 700ma. That prompted me to switch to a powered USB hub, with the mouse and keyboard plugged into that on two ports and a third port providing power back to the Pi, leaving a fourth port spare.

Having reached the end of my tether with the screen blanking out this evening I considered not running the Pi from the USB hub and instead using the Samsung charger JUST for the Pi and the powered hub for everything else. I decided I didn't really want to do this as it meant having two separate devices plugged in to use my Pi and I was already a bit annoyed at having to use a powered hub.

Then I remembered that I have some 2.5" hard drive enclosures that come with Y-USB cables. The idea is that you plug both USB plugs in and one provides power and data connection and the second just provides additional power for more hungry drives. As I don't actually own a drive that's ever needed this second connector plugged in I decided I could sacrifice one of these cables.

A quick Google search showed that I would still only get 5v of power on the cable (I was initially concerned I would get 10v and blow my Pi!) but estimates on amps varied between 600 to 1000 ma.

I decided to go for it and grabbed a spare micro USB cable and one of these Y-USB cables and got busy. I didn't bother connecting the data wires as this is purely intended for powering the Pi, just connected the red/black wires.

Plugged it in, turned it on and it works perfectly, the screen blanking is gone!

Hopefully this might help out someone else when they're having a frustrating day...

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I initially had some problems in OpenELEC that I didn't have in Debian with what I can only describe as "sparkly bits" on certain screens. This is easily fixed by following instructions here:

http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting#Interference_visible_on_a_HDMI_or_DVI_monitor
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Sunday, 20 May 2012

OpenTTD

Have spent part of my day learning how to play OpenTTD, having NEVER played a Transport Tycoon game before. My curiosity was piqued having heard of efforts to port this to the Pi. You can read more about that here:

http://blogs.arcsoftwareconsultancy.com/pi/2012/05/01/open-transport-tycoon/
http://blogs.arcsoftwareconsultancy.com/pi/2012/05/14/update-on-openttd/

If you're like me and have never played this game before, check it out here:

http://www.openttd.org/en/

Needless to say, it's a great little game and I'm looking forward to seeing a fully working (and hopefully optimised) version of it running on my Pi.
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Distro Issues

Spent a frustrating morning trying to get the recently released Slackware distribution running on my Pi. I have no doubt that it will be great when problems are ironed out and I have nothing but praise and admiration for the person (or persons) responsible for porting it to the Pi, but it's just not ready for prime-time yet.

The main two problems I encountered were that I could not get my network connection working and I was experiencing lots of problems using my wireless mouse/keyboard.

Now the first of these problems may be down to my lack of Linux knowledge, but after numerous Google searches and checking of files, running of ifconfig and netconfig I was still getting no nearer to getting it working.

The second problem, with my wireless mouse/keyboard exhibited as lots of lag between keypresses or repeating my keypresses or just not picking up on them. This was a problem I had seen previously on Debian which turned out to be down to my power supply. I've since replaced that (now using a powered USB hub) and they are working perfectly in Debian. I wonder if Slackware is using more power than Debian and therefore affecting the mouse/keyboard and potentially the ethernet too?

If you want to try it for yourself, you can pick it up here:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=6132

Anyway, back to Debian I went and decided to get the problems with the display sorted out. Here I had two problems, text was too small so as to be virtually unreadable and I had fat black borders at the top and bottom of the screen.

Now I am sure the small text is perfect if you are on a 32" or 37" or 40" (or even bigger) screen, but at present my Pi is hooked up to a 19" screen, so I needed to find out how I changed the resolution.

I referred to the following two pages:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3042

http://elinux.org/R-Pi_ConfigurationFile

These (particularly the first link) should tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the config.txt file. I set hdmi_mode=4 and then after a bit of trial and error I got the overscan settings perfect.

Next up, installing Chromium using the instructions here:

http://myraspberrypiexperience.blogspot.co.uk/p/chromium-browser.html
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Friday, 18 May 2012

Battery Power

One thing my son and I were interested in was powering a Raspberry Pi from batteries. At present we have no specific application for this, but obviously if it can be done it opens up a world of opportunities for a portable Pi!

To this end I popped into my local Maplin store on my way home and picked up a 4xAA Battery Box (Code HF29 - £1.29) and a PP3 Clip (Code HF28 - £1.19) to go with a micro USB cable I picked up at Poundland earlier in the week.

I snipped the USB plug (the big one, not the micro one!) from the end of the cable and stripped back some insulation. I then snipped the yellow and white wires off and connected the red and black wires to the same colours on the PP3 cable. This then clipped onto the battery box which by now was filled with batteries, ready to rock.

We connected up the Pi and it came to life! Booted OpenELEC and started a video playing, all without problems. Very pleased.

We might make a further trip back to Maplin this weekend to pick up a switch and some rechargeable batteries, I'll keep you posted!

EDIT: Tweeted about the above, and the Raspberry Pi people dropped me a tweet back to say "awesome - but be aware that if you push more than 5v through you may shorten the lifetime if the chip. 5v linear regulator FTW!" Hmmm... obviously this isn't quite as simple as I thought and a bit more work is required! In short, don't follow my instructions above for now, will update when I come up with a better solution.
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Saturday, 12 May 2012

Raspberry Pi

I finally got my hands on a Pi on Thursday, 10/05/12. Sadly (for me) I had already promised the first Pi we received to my 10 year old son, so I had to hand it over. I'd been following the Pi since it's first appearance on the BBC website. I'd got my son interested and had promised him one for Christmas last year. Sadly due to various delays they weren't available anything like early enough for Christmas so he got an IOU and the aforementioned promise that the first Raspberry Pi I got hold of would be his.

Fortunately for me, while he's quite techy, he's not as techy as me so I've been able to play around with it a fair bit over the last couple of days. I've been darting in and out of his bedroom with different SD cards and scribbled notes like a madman! After getting Debian up and running (simplicity itself, just download and follow the instructions on the website) we wanted to get Quake 3 running. I found some very useful instructions here and soon had everything downloaded and copied across. Sadly loading up the game would cause the Pi to freeze up.

We tried various combinations of USB hubs, mice, keyboards, even a different SD card, but to no avail. I decided to move onto trying something else and got busy with OpenELEC! I've been using XBMC in various forms for about a year and a half now and fully intend to have at least one (if not several once they become easier to get hold of) Raspberry Pi dedicated to running XBMC. I was hoping the process of setting it up would be as easy as that for Debian, but no joy. I would have to download the sources and compile it myself!

Fortunately some great instructions were available here on the OpenELEC website to get me going. I grabbed a spare laptop (no DVD drive or battery, hence why it's a spare!) and installed Ubuntu 12.04 as I would need a flavour of Linux on hand to compile and didn't want to tie up my own laptop (also running Ubuntu 12.04) all day. I then ran through the instructions and left it to build. And build. And build.

And build.

Finally about 4pm it finished (I had started at around 9am) and I then used the second part of the instructions to get it onto an SD card. Booted up the Pi with the new SD card and it all looked great! Sadly it was frozen, more problems!

It was about this time when I decided that maybe the PSU I had purchased was no good. It was a plug with a USB port that is *supposed* to provide 5v at 1000Ma. So I pulled the USB cable from the bottom and shoved it into the next nearest thing... the front of my son's XBox 360! Pi booted up and worked like a charm, lovely!

(For reference, the 360 doesn't even need to be switched on for this!)

I've still run into a few power-related issues, so I don't think this is a permanent solution and am on the look out for a powered USB hub or two now. Still, it was fun to get these things set up and I've definitely learnt a few new things. Just wondering what I'm going to do next...
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Saturday, 27 February 2010

2010 Gaming Expenditure Tracking - January

So it was suggested over at rllmukforum that we track our gaming expenditure for 2010.

Here is how my January figures break down:

JANUARY

(360) Halo 3 ODST Sgt Johnson code - £2
(PC) Ultimate Spider-Man - £3.50
(PC) Pirates! - £4.99
(360) Lost Planet Colonies Edition - £6.99
(DS) Sonic Rush - £7.00
(PC) Qwak - £0.99
(360) Battlefield Bad Company - £9.85
(360) Iron Man - £7.99
(Wii) Tatsunoko vs Capcom - £17.95

(ebay) Sales total + £19.69

2010 TOTAL - £41.57
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Saturday, 2 January 2010

Nearly time to go back to work...

I've had a nice long break from work for the festive period and I've inevitably used some of that time to play games.

As a result I've been able to finish off Batman Arkham Asylum (the main game, I am going to go back at some point and do the challenges and get all the Riddler trophies,) Halo 3 ODST (with help from Player Boy in co-op mode,) and Quantum of Solace.

Thoroughly enjoyed all three games, with Batman being top of the heap. I can't wait for the sequel (and Halo Reach for that matter) later in the year.
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Sunday, 20 December 2009

New Year's Resolutions

Okay so I am a few days early in posting this but I'm hoping to be busy playing new games after Christmas so I figured I might as well get this up now.

Here are my (gaming related) New Year's Resolutions!

1) No day one purchases unless it's a day one play. I've bought far too many games on release (or even shortly after) that have then just sat on my shelf gathering dust until I've got around to playing them, all the while I am seeing their price drop in various special offers and sales to the point where I could have picked it up for half the price or less. If I am going to start playing it straight away then I don't have a problem with paying day one prices, but not for a game that is going to sit idle. An obvious exception to this will be FIFA 11 and the inevitable World Cup game (assuming it follows the same mould as Euro 2008).

2009 offenders: Batman Arkham Asylum, Halo Wars, Gears of War 2 (technically bought 2008 as a Christmas present for me, but I've still not started it!)

2) No special limited collector's editions. Unless they are cheap! I've had my fingers burned this year on Batman Arkham Asylum on which I shelled out for collector's edition and found the contents to be less than awesome.

Mind you on the flip side I picked up the Alone in the Dark Limited Edition for around a fiver!

2009 offenders: Batman Arkham Asylum, Halo Wars

3) Stick to the £25 limit. I've gone into detail about this before, but basically you shouldn't pay more than £25 for a game. With this in mind I have cancelled all my pre-orders except for Battlefield Bad Company 2, which I am not sure whether I will keep it open or not as I never finished Bad Company 1!

2009 offenders: UFC Undisputed 2009
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Tuesday, 15 December 2009

2010 is looking REAL good...

With 2009 drawing to a close and with Batman Arkham Asylum firmly installed as my pick up game of the year (with honourable mentions to Forza 3, FIFA 2010 and UFC 2009) my attention is beginning to turn to 2010.

I already have Dark Void, Dead Rising 2 and Super Street Fighter 4 pre-ordered and a further ten games on my watch list, all of which are almost certain to be purchased unless something goes horribly wrong late in their development.

Of course that's always a possibility. The one I am currently most worried about is Alan Wake. It looks fantastic, but then so did Alone In The Dark up until the first reviews rolled in - and even then it was pulling down high scores to start with. I hope, given all the time and effort that the developers have put into it, that it is awesome. I'm reading a Stephen King book at the moment (Duma Key) and have several more lined up so I can quite see myself getting well into the storyline...

I'm also hoping for great things from Alpha Protocol. I have Mass Effect on my shelf which is a similar game albeit from a different developer (Bioware rather than Obsidian) but the sci fi plot isn't drawing me in as much as I am hoping the espionage antics of Alpha Protocol will.

Dark Void looks like loads of fun and being someone who loved The Rocketeer (the movie and the comics) and Cinemaware's Rocket Ranger title on the Amiga, I am looking forward to flying about on a jetpack. There have been some question marks raised in previews about the camera and controls, but I hope that the game can rise above these - no pun intended!

Of course there is another top reason for hoping for good things from Alan Wake, Alpha Protocol and Dark Void, which is that of all the games I am currently watching and/or have pre-ordered, these are the only three based on an original IP. It's getting more and more rare these days for big publishers to take a chance on a project based on a new IP, so fingers crossed that these do well.

We can then, of course, look forward to their inevitable sequels...
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Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Batman Arkham Asylum

So I finally got around to starting Batman Arkham Asylum last week. I pre-ordered the 360 Collector's Edition and it has sat on my shelf waiting for me to make a start on it. I started playing Condemned and it's mix of detective work and action wasn't really doing it for me, but it did serve to remind me that I had Batman waiting for me.

Of course the "Collector's Edition" is absolutely dire. The batarang looked awesome in all the press photos, but in real life it is a hideous plastic-y piece of crap. The game itself comes in a flimsy little cardboard wallet with a second "making of" DVD, so you can't easily accomodate it with the rest of your 360 games if you slot them into DVD racks like I do. The booklet which describes the characters will be of little interest to a confirmed bat-fan like me, so all in all a complete waste of money. Let's face it, I (and probably at least 90% of the other people that opted for the Collector's Edition) wanted it for the batarang. I was ridiculously excited about it and was considering grand schemes of a little glass case to house it, maybe with a cool blue light to really show it off. I was convinced it would be utterly awesome and the crushing reality almost turned me off the game completely.

Fortunately I finally got over it and have been playing the game all week when I've had the opportunity. I'm currently around 40% in and can confidently describe it as my game of the year. It's not just an awesome game, it's an awesome Batman game which is no mean feat. I really hope this gets a sequel, maybe with the action taking place in Gotham itself rather than on Arkham and would love to see a co-op mode added, especially if you can have a choice of partner, e.g. Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Azrael, etc.

It's also popping up in places pretty damn cheap now (which again makes that awful Collector's Edition and it's pricetag all the more galling) so if you haven't got it then get it. If you're not a Batman fan (or a fan of superheroes in general) then please do not let that put you off, you will be missing out on an awesome experience if you do.
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Thursday, 12 November 2009

Life's too short to play bad games!

I've steadily built up a sizable collection of games for my 360. In fact, recently, it's got to the point where they no longer fit in the rack I put up on the wall in order to hold my 360 titles. This lead me to consider whether I really need them all...

There are still a number of sealed (and obviously unplayed) games in that rack. Some I am sure I will get around to... one day... others I am not so sure. Some have been purchased on a whim, some because I saw them cheap and couldn't resist a bargain, some after a brief love affair with a demo... but they all have one thing in common; none of them appeal to me enough to take them down off that shelf and give them a whirl in the 360's drive.

So I decided that I needed to have a sort out and move on some of these games. Wish me luck!
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