Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Casino Games- a perfect game to make money

Casino Games
An online casino game is creating a niche with its high demand all over the globe. People find internet gambling to be a convenient way to try their luck due to which its momentous success and growth is reaching the zenith. This has led to a cut-throat competition among the world of cell phone roulette with faster servers and stronger security as the prime standard. Now the players have a host of options to opt from, as diversity of opportunity and services are coming up. Customer retention is an important aspect in any business, and same is with cell phone roulette. The easier and varied payment options, sign-up bonuses, array in games and openhanded loyalty bonuses are some of the tools to attract and retain the prospect clients. All these contribute to be a captivating factor for the players.

The cell phone usage has become so universal that you would find at least a dozen of people busy in using some or the other form of mobile device, be it a PDA or a cell phone. Looking at the future prospects, the emergence of Online Casinos in to the cell phone devices was simply inevitable. Now making real money is fun through cell phone online casino games. Just like your laptop or your home computers, the mobile devices offer a diverse gaming option for its players.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

RetroEdit cleanup

For the lack of any better ideas, I've been cleaning up retro edit into a more consistant state and I've now got the control editing the data in a native format. This means theres no real conversion required when lifting the data out an saving it off - or indeed loading data into it.

I still need to go through the application itself as I've changed my mind on several things. For example while its perfectly valid to allow you to edit HiRes and MultiColour more sprites together I'm not going to allow it. This means you dont have to run through a hundred sprites and switch them all to Hires or MCM, and in reality this would hardly ever happen anyway.

I can now draw a sprite okay so what I really need to do is add colour palette selection to let me pick which colour I want to paint with. Once I've done that I can add the features that make editing fun.

I'll need to extend the editing control to allow for character and bitmap mode because I want to use the same control to do all editing. That said, I'm still not sure what I'll be spending my time on over the Christmas break, but for now I'll carry on with this...

Xbox 360 - The Next Generation Video Game

Xbox 360 is a next generation video game which may play both the DVD movies and the games also. This form of video game system is the modern way of playing the games or listening to the music and watching movies.

XBox 360

The features which attracts us more and more towards the Xbox 360 includes DVD playback kits, controllers, cables, adapters, wireless gears and the whole load of superb accessories. An USB camera can also be added to it which has been specially designed for this subsequent generation system. 

The placates: Two different systems are offered by the Xbox 360 which has different prices. The Xbox 360 Elite System is costlier which is offered at about $400 and the Xbox 360 Core System is very inexpensive which is offered at $300. 


1. The Elite System: It offers everything which can ever thing off for your system. It has a control system and a very big hard drive. The control system is black and has no wires. The headset is a bit weird which has a great black finish.



2. The Core System: It comes with a plugging in comfort. It is mainly a stripped bones system for the people ho merely wish to play the video games. This system is best for the younger children who just play her or his video games.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

RetroEdit

I was looking through the source of retro edit and wondering what I'd do to change it, and came to the conclusion that actually, its not as bad as I thought. The only major change I want to do is how the data is stored internally. You see when I started this I decided to store the data in a basic INT[] array, where each 0 or 1 was actually a BIT, and I would then process the data for editing and drawing. However, this is a bit yucky, and I now think it would be better to just store the data in a more native format. Thats not to say I'll store it in boxes, or colums etc. but as a simple X by Y row of bytes. This makes plug-ins to save the data in a custom format easy.

So I think I might have a little play and see if I can reorginise things so they are more to my liking, and this will (I hope) then allow me to use the custom control to actually do real graphics work.

The way I've gone about this is to have a custom control that deals with retro graphics. So you load it up with the data (in a simple rowxcolum format, and you can then select colours and plot pixels. The idea is that once its released (if ever!) then you could use the control yourself outside of retro edit to do other things. I have no idea if this would ever happen, but it might.

So I've decided to give it a few days and see how I get on. If I feel like Im getting somewhere, I'll carry on - if not, I'll bin it.

Heli Attack 3

The heli attack 3 is the pergola survival shooter game which is very similar to the previous game of heli attack 2. Heli attack 2 was considered as the best playoff in the year 2003. So, the new version of this game surely promises to offer superb graphic game to the players. Apart from altering the core of the game play, the team of the game producers or designers has added a lot of movements like crouching and climbing. The heli attack 3 game has introduced a complete set of new weapons that are used while playing. These weapons make this game more interesting and a complete entertainment package.
Heli Attack

The level series has also been added to the new version for an alteration of the scenery and increase the difficulty of the enemies. A really cool gun has also been added to the game in order to reward the hardcore gamers who pass all the difficult stages of the games and make through to the final level of the game. In the recent time, the heli attack 3 game has attained a lot of recognition amid all age groups. The people who love to play a challenging computer game opt to play this game. This game is very adventurous and complete fun to play.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

SID tunes.

I discovered today that one of our musicians has discovered the SID chip. He got hold of a new synth that uses SID emulation (due to lack of SID chips) and has been making music with them. I find this amazing really, that folk are rediscovering older tech like SID chips and putting them to work making really. It's also funny when others comment that it’s all old hat and a waste of time that new comers find so much enjoyment in them that they buy dedicated units to play with. Stuart (Ross) said that while the SID is pretty harsh in its basic form, he loves the way the filters work and the sounds you can get with them - which is of course why oldies like me still love to listen to old SID tunes. While the sound is somewhat unique, at the heart of our favourites is a good tune and because of that, more musicians are re-discovering the wonders of the likes of SID/Synth style music. Great stuff.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Change of direction.

So with Christmas comming up it's almost time for my anual direction change. I was hoping that my ATmega devkit would arrive in time, but its looking less likely as time goes on - pooh. Oh well. I've pretty much completed what I wanted to do with Minus4j, although I'd like an option to pick a file fom the ZIP to switch to or load, but until Plus4world allows real access to ZIP files, this isn't that important. I'll probably wrap up what I've got into another release and leave it there for now, although I've yet to look at the sid filters but that may also be defered until later.

As to what project I'll do at Christmas time, well I'm not sure. I'd love to get back into electronics a little, but theres also my debugger and getting it running on a C64 and emulator. I'm also starting to think I need to restart RetroEdit. When I started it I hadn't done much C#, and over the years I've learnt how to do things properly. This means I could make a real stab at a proper system but as i've seen with the debugger, this means some serious effort. That said, I'd love a very simple interface so that I could draw tiles/graphics for myself.

I also really need to get a basic MAP editor togther even if its a very simple interface so that we can make levels for Xeo3. The old one works but is a little crude in paces - it would be nice to fix that.

So I have a few things I'd like to play with, I guess time will tell if I actually GET to...

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Play The Adventurous Stunt Dirt Bike

From the children motor cycle playoffs to the off road bike games and even reverse to few of the very initial bike games which have been created in the times ago includes superb stunts, jumps and the crashes which are enough to keep the player on the side of the seat at any point of the time. In the recent times, the Stunt dirt bike games are very easily downloaded in the computer.
Stunt Dirt Bike

Stunt dirt bike games are very adventurous. It is a fun flash playoff where the player has to choose amid different vehicles in order to traverse through a range of obstacles. It is mostly liked by the guys as they love adventure and challenges. This game basically has a bike rider who performs superb bike stunts which are very risky. Not only the young boys; the oldies also love to play this games and the girls who have passion for bikes. It is a very fun filled playoff which has managed to gather a lot of recognition in the past few years. The graphics of this game gives a very real feeling which increases the fun a lot.

The people who do not get a chance to ride the bikes and love to try different bike stunts can choose to play this game as an alternative for their passion. It is an enormously legendry and challenging game.

Bowja The Ninja: The Free Online Ninja Game

The people who always wait eagerly to play the new ninja series have good news here. A new game have been introduced which offers complete fun and adventure. In the newly introduced game which is named bowja the ninja is a playoff where ninja is on a secret mission to the Factory Island in order to take out the danger that is Gi8000 or very commonly known as the Randy the Robert. In this game ninja defeat the workers of the factory so that he could save the humanity forever before it gets very late.
Bowja The Ninja

Bowja the Ninja which is created by Robin Venice is a very appealing point and click adventure were you should be able to locate the accurate places in order to make the little Bowja advance, solve the puzzles and besting the foes along the entire way. The little voices, scenery and the animations of this game make it a very pleasurable game all through the game. At last, once you save the humanity and complete the entire game, you are rewarded few game art downloads as a treat.

Bowja the Ninja is a superb game to play. Not only the young boys; the older people also love to play this indoor game throughout the day. Therefore, this mission game is one of the excellent games to play on the internet.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Java, java everywhere and not a drop to drink.

So it turns out the ZIP file issue I was having is a bug, and SUN have now filed it. This is good as it means I'm not going mad! Someone from Sun got in touch and I was able to send them the offending file, so with any luck no one else will have to pull their hair out in frustration.

It's also good to know that it is indeed simple to read ZIPs, and I have been making steady progress now. I now have the ZIP being downloaded, and the first D64 being loaded and run. I really need to orginise the file processing better as it - well sucks. Its hacked in really badly and is sorely in need of a re-orginisation so that the normal rules about loading D64s and PRGs then apply to the contents of the ZIP. That said, I feel like I'm getting sucked further and further into emulator development again, and thats not something I want to do again (or at least, not right now).

This means I'll be hacking together a simple version and then I may update it later to allow better support and the zipping of everything.

I have also started using collections inside java (more to see what they're like than any real need), and while similar to C#, they just aren't as nice. C# has lots of little features like array access to them and handy functions like sorting all built in, where as its a little cruder in Java. Still, at least they're there...

Sunday, December 7, 2008

It never rains but it pours..

So, I've figured out what was wrong...ready? The ZIP file. And I have no idea why. I unzipped it, then rezipped it, and it all works. Sugar. Does this mean I have to go and rezip every file on Plus4world? Who knows... But at least it appears to be working...kind of. I wonder if I could send the broken ZIP to sun and have them fix it, because I can only assume theres a bug in the JVM. I'll need to see if I can find an unzipping program that CAN'T unzip it, because if they all work then its definitelty broken in the java JVM.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

I hate java, I hate java, I hate java, I hate java....etc..

So, back with Minus4j once more. I'm trying to get some ZIP support in here so that more files on Plus4world will work, but once moe=re I'm struggling to get Java to behave and do what its supposed to do. Opening a ZIP file in java is pretty is (supposedly) but will it work for me? Will it strawberry. All that should happen is I pass it an input stream and then read files, and while I appear to get no error, it also doesn't appear to actually read any file inside....Oh chocolate.

       BufferedInputStream bis = new BufferedInputStream(_stream, 16384);
try
{
ZipInputStream in = new ZipInputStream(bis);
ZipEntry entry;
while( (entry = in.getNextEntry())!=null )
{
// process the ZIP
}
in.close();
}

So in the above code, it just never gets into the inner while loop and I've no idea why - so if you have any idea...let me know. I did think it was because it was coming over HTTP, so I read it all in and build a memory stream, but that doesn't seem to matter. On top of this, no one else seems to have this problem, so I can't find any answers on the net either..... *sigh*

Thursday, December 4, 2008

PHP'ing

I've been reading through my PHP for dummies book and I'm actually having fun with it! Its very like C/C++/C# with only minor differences really, so I'm thinking of using the Plus4world database to try a few things out; read only mode of course, I;m not stupid! So what I think I'll try first is to see if I can make a "play online" page.

The reason for this is that i've spent quite a bit of time going through all the games and testing them out with the new Minus4j, and their working pretty well. But I'd like to get them all listed so I can see how many we have and get them all under one roof - as it were. It'll also (obviously) teach me more about PHP, and the more I know, the more I can help Csabo out on the site - or thats the plan.

I'm obviously no where near that stage yet, but I find that doing a real project helps focus what your doing and helps you learn. So here we go!

I took was also speaking to someone about multi monitor setups a while back and was saying that while I have 3 monitors at home, I actually have 4 at work! So I've taken a piccy of my development setup (I should really do a home one too - even though its a hell of a mess) for you all to mock. I've got a really old TFT for my main source monitor as it rotates and gives me more lines to read - which is cool. All those monitors are from one machine and gives a lovely big desktop, which means I have loads of programs open at once, So much so...I think I need more RAM - Vista being the power hog that it is. Good fun though!

Oh...and you'll notice I'm still a fan of the good old "clunky" keyboard - I had to look long and hard for a good "click" one! I hate these springy things.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

We've got SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!! Good, proper, BIG snow! This is the view from the Realtime Worlds office, and its great!! I hope it hangs around for a while, but its getting quite bright and sunny just now..pooh.

I got on pretty well with Minus4j over the week end as I managed to get 1551 disk emulation in and working! This means that we should be able to get more games online at Plus4 world. However, I'll need to add ZIP support before we really get invloved in it as most disks on plus4 world actually have 2 sides and are packaged up. Still I think this should be okay, but I'll have to look at it later this week.

I've also got a couple of PHP books so that I can learn a little bit of PHP and help out a bit more on Plus4world; well, that and my DMA Site. It's in desprate need of re-vamping and I'd like to make the whole thing database driven. However, first things first - I need to learn PHP first! I'm looking forward to it I have to say!

I've also been reading through the Yape SID code to see if I can get something from it. The filter stuff is pretty complex and I need to figure out exactly what its doing before I can decided to use itor not.... I'm fairly optimisitc that I'll get something from it.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Download the free PC games

A lot of people are looking for more and more games sites in order to download them in their PC for free.


The numerous search engines display millions of such sites which offer superb games without any cost. But downloading those free online games at times looks a bit difficult. People wonder if actually any online site allows the free downloading of the computer games on their PC’s.
PC games
Before any gamer decide to download any game from different portals, he should know which site he should consider for downloading. Yet, before you start to download any game, you need to look at various aspects. One such aspect is the way through which you download. The most common way of downloading the computer games is the file sharing networks. A lot of people are now taking up this form of downloading as it the most apt and easy way of downloading the games. People have taken up the P2P file sharing method. The people have some license number which allows them to download the computer games without any cost.

In the recent times, loads and loads new portals have come up which offers superb and great computer games which are huge fun. People from the kids to the old age group love to play these computer games as having it is very easy. Therefore, downloading the computer games free of cost is just a click away.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Vista x64 upload working!

I've managed to get the upload program working once more with the x64 driver, however I now need to press F8 whenever the machine is booting up so I can disable driver signing. Stupid stupid stupid vista! I wonder how much it costs to sign a driver. This is a VERY popular driver, so it may be possible for everyone to club together and pay for it.

There used to be a work around where you could just switch it off, but Microsoft in their infinite wisdom disabled it. Its thing like this which will drive folk to other operating systems. (Course... MAC doesn't HAVE a parallel port...)

I think one of the things on my to-do list should be a simple USB to parallel wire. Now I know there ARE some, but I'd love to have a proper one that acts EXACTLY like a parallel port and does all the crap for you. I imagine this would sell pretty well, particually if it could get signed properly. Oh well... another one to add to the list.

Still, for now its working and means I can now test Plus4 code again. The original uploader hasn't changed, but I now have a new DLL and SYS file that I use on VISTA.

So what else is new; well I've added basic SID support to Minus4j but its a bit pooh to say the least. The lack of filter support really sucks and since most music/fx uses them, they just dont sound right at all.Attila has kindly sent me the core of the SID emulator from YAPE and I'll see if I can wedge that in. It's very much like trying to put a square peg in a round whole though as YAPE and Minus4j are not only very different langauges, but have very different design philosophies. Still, its worth a go! With any luck I'll get it added and we can get some good sounds playing in demos.

Speaking of demos, I noticed that many appear to over run their rasters, and I think I've finally figured out why. I dont think Minus4j (or Minus4w) are letting them have a whole scanline. Basically the "newline" function is being called at the start/end of a scanline (HBLANK) but thats not where the timing is working from. The horizontal dot clock is being reset by the newline function and losing clock ticks. This means you dont get all your processing cycles, and would also be the cause of my inability to load tapes. Tape loading is in fact VERY easy (once you have a good sample), all you do is set a bit on/off as it plays, and at the right time. But if the CPU timing is out, it'll never work - explains a few things.

It may however be a nightmare to fix, so I'll have to look into it. It would be great to be able to load PRGs, D64s and TAPs into Minus4j, but I'll wait and see how everything else goes. I really really don't want to get sucked wasting all my time on emulators again...I have bigger fish to fry.

EDIT: Oh, and if anyone else does want to use the uploader on Vista64, then let me know and post a ZIP with the new drivers and installation instructions.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

A sound idea and Vista kicking you when you're down.

I was fixing some sound issues with Minus4j last night, as I suddenly discovered it was actually pretty broken. If both channels went quite loud and high frequency, it all started to break up - samples too in point of fact. So I spent some time fixing this and its all much nicer, samples sound pretty clean and music in Commando and Monty on the Run are much much nicer.

This then lead me to look at D64 support. I was trying to load TerraNova and it started to work, then didn't. It gets stuck in some odd loop which i think is sample based, but I'm not sure, and I think I have my interrupt flagging wrong. Currently I flag them only when $FF0A is also set, but I believe this is wrong. I think you should always flag them, they just dont kick off an interrupt!

So i thought I'd do some test code on the real machine and see what happens. It was at this point I realised I haven't downloaded anything since I've upgraded (and I use that term losely) to Vista x64. Parallel port access requires a system driver, and under x64 all system drivers must be x64 based. This means my great little 32bit dll which gives me raw access to a parallel port under windows, now no longer works, which in turn means I can no longer download directly to the plus4 - OR carry on with my debugger. FEK!

So I've managed to find a 64bit version of the driver, but its just not working, and now I dont know if thats because the driver isn't working, isn't being found or simply because the parallel port on my machine is set up wrongly. FEK.

So tonight I hope to fix this and test out the interrupt registers a bit more. At the same time, I've started adding D64 support via the Commodore 1551 parallel port registers. This is why turbo loaders dont work on Minus4 as I assume its one of these devices. I used to just intercept calls to the LOAD command, but this is a little better. Anyway, I hope to get basic D64 support in soon although with all the disk turbo loaders around I'm not sure how much use it'll be.

As a little aside.. I was looking at the Minus4sim I started years back. This was a cycle perfect version of Minus4, but I got bored with emulation and mechanic was a little too messy for my likeing. However... C# has some really, REALLY cool constructs for pausing code mid execution, and i think if I ported it over to C#, it would all become VERY elegent and simple to follow. No longer would you have to hold partial states etc. You just pause and resume. So I may play with this at a later date as it would give some very simple code but yield some amazing results. It would also allow me to finally do a fully emulated 1541, which I've been meaning to do for years.

Still mustn't get too side tracked. I have to finish up with Minus4j, then the debugger, then back on to Xeo3.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Cool Electronics things....

So first a couple of links:-


http://www.belogic.com/uzebox/index.htm
http://www.ladyada.net/make/fuzebox/


Now whats this got to do with anything? Well have a look at these videos




Very cool indeed, more so because its not a particually expensive chip. So I was wondering what more you could do with it, and I've been having a look at some videos, and the specs. Now I've always used PIC Microchips, but I've noticed an increasing number of projects using these ATmega things and after looking at the datasheets, I can see why. The assembler is actually pretty nice! It looks normal! PIC stuff is okay, but I'm not a fan where as the ATmega has 32 registers, hardware multiplys, and most instructions take a single cycle! Now that IS interesting! Now have a look at this video....





This guy does various demos with it, and he gets some pretty cool results for such a small little device. So, I've ordered myself a little kit to playwith, and I might try hooking it up to a VGA monitor (I'm still struggling with PAL colour output, this phase shift stuff is a tad confusing). The other thing this little chip can do that PIC's simply can't, is address external RAM without having to do all the work yourself! Thats awesome! It means you could have megs of addressable SRAM (in the same way a Plus/4 could) without any speed loss, where as a PIC would really struggle as you have to set address lines, read and write data lines et..

What I would really like to try is making a GPU for a plus4. If I use dual port RAM, I could get the plus4 to write into the ATmegas ram, then get it to use it as a frame buffer and render things. This means you could switch the plus4's screen off (saving lots of CPU time), and then output the signal from the cartridge's ATmega chip. You could then add sprites, sound and all the rest without too much effort. if you really wanted to, you could have multiple chips each doing a different job - one for 10 channel SID emulation (or something), another for pure sample playback, and perhaps one to deal with chatacter maps, and another could add sprites etc... kinda like an arcade machine does.

Course...that won't happen. but i'd love to try and hook one up to a Plus4 and see what it would be like. Having already done a RAM expansion without opening up the plus4, I don't see why something like this couldn't be done - it'd be neat!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Super Mario Games Mania

Super Mario Games are a very important section in the world of video games and has a royal name since the time of Nintendo.


Mario is among the most easily recognizable faces in the world of internet games. Surprisingly, the actual name of the games was the jump man but later the name was changed to Mario as it acts as the promotional name too.
Super Mario
At the time of the introduction of this game, it caught up a great success. The very initial games of Nintendo did not actually very different games from the other companies like Atari. But after the introduction of the Superb games Super Mario Games in the market, Nintendo captured the market and became the most popular and almost an icon in the video game world.

One of the most famous and played Super Mario Games in the recent time is Mario Kart Series. The best thing about the game is that it allows the players to play the game in a competitive manner. More than a single player can play this game which makes it more interesting and a great fun. It is an adventures game to play and have great clean fun while playing this game which leaves the friends still friends. The people from all age group have a great passion for the Super Mario Games these days which is spreading like fire. Thus, Super Mario Games are still rocking!

Ultimate Entertainer- Free Flash Games

The flash games have captured a great part in the world of internet. In the recent times, playing online games during free time have almost become a trend.

Free Flash Games
The arcade games are not always considered good with the school administrators or the employers. In order to add more to this existing mess, the free flash games played on the internet are not always very useful but surely helps in over coming the boredom as it Is a great fun and big time pass.

The flash based online games offered free by numerous portals are among the fastest growing and moving industries today. A lot of different kinds of flash games are offered free which are countless. Finding the best flash games on the websites might become a bit difficult but all flash games are fun.

The most excellent part of the free flash games is that all of them come in numerous types, genres and themes, whether you wish to play any adventures games or you are looking for any flying, shooting, puzzle, action, racing or any other kind of flash games. The online free flash games are not merely for the children. People of all age group especially people between 20 years to 40 years love to play this game. The free flash games help the players to come out of their all stress and tensions. Therefore, it helps to keep the players healthy too.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

JAR files.

I've been having a little trouble getting resources inside JAR files working, I took some code from my mobile phone days and used it inside Minus4j without any luck. The idea being that I could package the ROM and WAVE files up in the JAR file, and so I wouldn't have to do a slow load over HTTP.

I've now managed to get this working by using the main minus4j class rather than a java object. No idea why this matters, but it does, and it's now working. This means I can now package up ROMs and samples without having the extra paramaters or load commands, which it turn will spead up loading.

I'm also planing to add a virtual keyboard that will let you click keys rather than search for them - Saying I don't get bored of all this first of course....

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Sophisticated 3D Games

A lot of online portals offer entertaining and sophisticated 3D games along with superb graphic to have fun. All the 3D racing games incorporate luxury cars, spaceships, boats and barrels. The online games which may be played on the internet are greatly becoming complex as the internet speeds amplify which helps to get the greater resolution of the 3D graphics.
3D Games
A very small and funny 3D game played solely by the player along with some other players with the help of LAN is the game in which the player has to defend or race against the opponent players. In such game, no racing cars, no other vehicles, no boats or any other thing is used. The game is played only with the couple of maps with numerous jungles and desert along with the other opponents. Free ride is among the most popular and played 3D game on the internet. This game involves a spaceship which takes the player flying through the tunnels and the twisted tracks. Free ride Thrash is a superb game to play. It is a great fun and playing with the other opponents doubles the fun.

Although the 3D games played on the internet which involves the power vehicle are very well known and involves a lot of graphics, a lot of other small 3D games are also offered which are more fun to play and very easy too.

Mind Opening Puzzle Games

The puzzle games are the great pick for the growth of mind. Every game has a very distinctive style of teaching the strategy, fun and planning. All the puzzle games help the child and even the grown ups to think more sharply and better. Some of the kinds of puzzle games offered on the internet are as follows:
Math Puzzle: If you like to test your mind in mathematics, then this puzzle game is surely for you. It helps to test you skills in math. One such very famous game available on the internet is Sudoku.
Puzzle Games
Old Fashioned Puzzle: It is a huge fun to play this type of puzzle games. Finding the lost part of any figure and making it a complete structure is a great fun. The flash puzzle games help the player to solve the game much faster.
Crossword Puzzle: It is not very popular in the present day. A lot of websites offer such games which vary from very simple game to very difficult. One crossword puzzle game is New York Times which is among the favorites amid all the puzzle players.


Word Puzzles: If you like to play with your words, then this game is your destination. The word puzzle games are a great fun which actually helps the players to enhance their vocabulary.


If you are very fond of online puzzle games, then look for portals which offer good puzzle games in order to increase your skills and sharp the mind.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Minus4j Version 1.5 released.

I've just released the latest version of Minus4j, this is the one thats been up on plus4 world for a week or so. Its got some major improvements like Audio, joystick/key combos and auto starting via the filename.

  • Added a paramater for the initial frameskip value.
  • Removed software screen scale and now use built in JAVA one - should be MUCH faster.
  • Added ESCAPE key (Escape)
  • Added RUN STOP key - ` (backwards apostrophe, beside 1 key)
  • Added the * key (numpad)
  • Added undocumented opcode LAS,Y ($BB) command. Danger Diamonds now runs.
  • Minus4j now picks up sys0000 style RUN commands from the filename. So games like "mercenary_sys23552.prg" now work without a seprate RUN command.
  • Minus4j now picks up g12AB style RUN commands from the filename. So games like "mercenary_g5C00.prg" now work without a seprate RUN command.
  • TED Sound!!!
  • TED Samples!!
  • New "sound" paramater. sound=off or sound=on are valid. ON by default.
  • You can now press F7 while running to toggle sound (mute).
  • Added VOLUME control register.
  • If joystick is enabled, CursorKeys and Space key is disabled.
  • INSERT now does a soft reset.
  • Emulator now shuts down better.

    You can get the latest version from minus4.plus4.net.
  • Sunday, November 16, 2008

    Virtual Machine JOY!!

    I've just installed Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 with Ubuntu running as a VirtualMachine, and its all going pretty well for a first install....so much so, that I'm typing this inside the Ubuntu VM! I've been testing the java version of Minus4 and it runs pretty well here, of course this is a pretty big machine (quad core, 4gig ram etc.) so its not a big surprise... still, at 50fps its pretty solid.

    Once you scale the screen it starts to get sluggish, but a single frameskip pushes it up into the mid 40s and another to an solid 50. This is fine for games like mercenary that didn't draw the screen that much - or even XeO3 as I only draw the screen every second frame.

    I still have to get sound working - and get the screen res fixed as its currently locked to 896x600 for some odd reason. Once I've done that I'm going to try and get mono installed ready for some real work! Then I want to get a Mac VM created (if possible) and try the same stuff there. This would give me a solid development platform and let me do ALL my work from a single machine/desktop! How fekin' cool is that!

    Let there be sound!

    After a marathon day yesterday I managed to get some audio into Minus4j, and it really does make a huge difference. For the moment its TED sound only, and I do still have a little bit to do yet before its really nice, for a start volume isn't used at all! I ported this code directly from Minus4w and have only just noticed that theres no volume control on it, doppy bugger that I am. Still, you now get 2 TED channels (tone and noise) and samples (using the TED). Samples are a bit crude to say the least, so I'll need to work on that a little - although I think I'm driving my wife mad listening to odd sounding beeps all day, oh well.

    Once I have TED music in a better state, I'll port over my SID music player, and although its far from great (its a little rough and uses NO filters), it's still a good 1st step. After that, D64 support will almost bring it in line with Minus4w! Almost.... I'll need to see if its possible to save data to the local machine which would allow you to save games etc. other wise adventure games would be a pain. The solution to this I guess would be to port Minus4 to C# and Mono, this would allow it to run on any machine, AND on silverlight at a later date. It might also be a good time to use my cycle exact CPU I wrote about 6 years ago! It was designed to be more in line with YAPE than my scanline based one.

    Still, thats a loooooooooooooooooooooong way off, and theres loads to do before that. Russell also pointed out that I could let Minus4j host my debug stub as well, meaning you could develop and debug Plus4 apps on Linux or Mac OS, which would be cool.

    Anyway, head over to www.PlusWorld.com to see (and hear) the latest one in action! I've also started validating demos on Plus4 world, and although some just dont work, many work fine and its a much easier way of browsing them. We should really do an online demo page so you can have simple access to them.

    Saturday, November 15, 2008

    Even more java love.

    I've updated Plus4 World with the latest version of Minus4j. I've added a couple of handy features that allow even more games to run. The change list is below, and although I've not offically released this you can go and sample its goodness at plus4world.

  • Added a paramater for the initial frameskip value.
  • Removed software screen scale and now use built in JAVA one - should be MUCH faster.
  • Added ESCAPE key (Escape)
  • Added RUN STOP key - ` (backwards apostrophe, beside 1 key)
  • Added the * key (numpad)
  • Added undocumented opcode LAS,Y ($BB) command. Danger Diamonds now runs.
  • Minus4j now picks up sys4172 style RUN commands from the filename. So games like mercenary_sys23552.prg now work without a seprate RUN command.
  • Minus4j now picks up g12AB style RUN commands from the filename. So games like mercenary_g5C00.prg now work without a seprate RUN command.

    I'm also looking to add sound just now. This is a long standing issue that I'd love to fix so I've been looking at a couple of other emulators and how they handle sound. I not have my Java applet buzzing with noise so thats a good start! I should now only have to port over my TED sound stuff (and later SID sounds) in order to get it playing. Although theres obviously a long way to go before that, but at least theres a buzz about the place now.
  • Thursday, November 13, 2008

    More improvements to Minus4j

    So I was adding the escape and run-stop keys to the emulator last night, and was about to change the fire key from space to control (or something) when I hit a road block. Java doesn't GIVE you acess to the control key - or shift and ALT for that matter. These keys come through as modifiers, meaning you only get them when another key is pressed. Fek.

    I'll need to look at other emulators and see what they do, but if this is the case Im not sure where fire will go - unless I disable the KEYBOARD "space" while joystick is active. Thats a bit fudgy, but it would work.

    Oh well, I'll just have to carry on until I figure out something better.

    And another thing.... In the future I hope to ditch Java altogether and move to Silverlight which is all C# (much nicer!). Someones already done a simple spectrum emulator HERE and while its not ballistic (because it still quite new), it will be better in the future, and MUCH nicer to code for. I suspect any C++ app can be ported over to it reasonably easily - since its C# and not java. Very cool.

    Tuesday, November 11, 2008

    Polls are now closed....

    So...I thought it was time for another poll. Heres the results of the last ones.

    What do you hope to do with XeO3?
  • Just play it! 52 (60%)
  • Just to look through the source for ideas 14 (16%)
  • Make my own levels. 7 (8%)
  • Reskin the whole game to make my own shoot-em-up. 6 (6%)
  • Use the full source code to make a complely different game. 6 (6%)
  • I'm not interested at all 1 (1%)


    Which platform are you most interested in?
  • Commodore 64 56 (41%)
  • Commodore Plus/4 27 (20%)
  • All of them!! 15 (11%)
  • Amstrad CPC 14 (10%)
  • Commodore 64 Super CPU 10 (7%)
  • I'd like it on a different platform... 7 (5%)
  • Sinclair Spectrum 5 (3%)

    So a couple of surprises.... One that theres actually 10 SCPU users! (unless he cheated and voted 10 times....), second that the CPC version out stripped the Speccy. Course, that could just mean we dont get a lot of speccy folk dropping by.

    But with the main poll having a few folk actually wanting to use the source/scripting, I thought I'd ask another one. have any of you ACTUALLY looked at the demo scripting? Or better yet, even done something with it?!?!? Theres a new Poll over on the right, so let me know.
  • Sunday, November 9, 2008

    More Java - man I hate java...

    So with the release yesterday Minus4j is actually in pretty reasonable shape. Sure it needs the source cleaned a little - theres loads of commented out crap in there, but on the whole not bad. So as I was adding another paramater to it (allowing you to specify the initial frame skip - since Xeo3 runs at 25Hz, you never NEED 50fps drawing), I suddenly realised that these days, Java probably provides image scaling as part of the API!

    And sure enough.... there it is. So, I've now removed the software scale I was using and now use the API. This is of couse good for 2 reasons. One... being part of the API means it might be assembler optimised, and not just some tacky code I did, and second it reduces the code I've to maintain. Its all good.

    Before I set it all aside again, I'm going to look into sound. I do this every 3 years or so to see how much effort it would be to add sound to Minus4j. When I started, you just couldn't, but there are now a few apps which do what I need to, so chances are its not too hard. All I really need is a buffer or two that plays music at a specific rate through a software buffer. I can then fill this up as I emulate things. This would let me plug in TED and SID music - not to mention samples that Minus4w can play. That would be cool - then all I'd need is some basic D64 support!

    Oh... and while I won't release all these little bits, I will update both my blog and Plus4world to use all the latest stuff, then release it when theres enough to package it all up.

    Saturday, November 8, 2008

    Speed UP! Slooooow down....

    So, it turns out the Java compiler is fine (I think). My timing code (that makes the game run at a specific FPS) appears to be crippling things. But I have no idea how. If I take out my timing code and run the game unscaled it ticks along at 350fps - or 7 times the normal frame rate. It looks like thats correct too as everything is moving about 7x the speed, so I think the FPS counter is working.

    So... whats wrong with my timing loop thats crippling it so much? I've tried to set and FPS of 200, but as soon as I do that, it tops out at 65fps. If I remove a couple of lines (the bit that makes it work), it jumps up to 350 again. So somethings rotten right in the state of Denmark... So, heres the timing loop, perhaps someone out there will spot it and save me staring at boring code for hours on end.....


    long tLastGameFrame = System.currentTimeMillis();
    long tNextGameFrame = tLastGameFrame + FPSRate;

    Last = tLastGameFrame;
    while (true)
    {
    long tNow = System.currentTimeMillis();

    // Quick check to see it timer has gone backwards!!
    if( tNow < tLastGameFrame ){
    tLastGameFrame= tNow;
    }

    // Check to see if system is stuttering due background OS stuff.
    // if jumped ahead over 5 seconds, then just reset...
    if( (tNow-tNextGameFrame) > 5000 ){
    tNextGameFrame = tNow;
    }

    // Timer has gone backwards
    if( tNow < tLastGameFrame ){
    tLastGameFrame= tNow;
    }


    dTime = (int)(tNow - Last);
    if (dTime >= 1000){
    dTime -= 1000; // dont get 0 (1000/1001)
    actualfps = CurrentFPSCount;
    CurrentFPSCount=0;
    Last = tNow;
    }

    // Now the main timing loop
    if( tNextGameFrame >= tNow )
    {
    // do nothing...or yield/sleep
    } else
    {
    while( tNow>tNextGameFrame){
    tLastGameFrame = tNextGameFrame;
    tNextGameFrame += FPSRate;
    }
    CurrentFPSCount++;
    }


    And there you go... pretty simple. Oh, and the reason for the backwards check is because in the modern world of clock syncing (to time.com or something), your clock might briefly go backwards. If this happens timer loops break - had this happen twice! Once on mobile phones, and once on a PC. Took me AGES to figure out the Mobile phone one, but fortunately I remembered about it for the PC.

    New version of Minus4j released.

    Well, I've decided to release what I've done so far so that Plus4world (and anyone else) can get the new bits.so head over to my MINUS4 site and get the latest one if you need it. Heres a list of the changes...

  • Updated rendering engine ported from Minus4w, should handle more cases.
  • Updated CPU processing ported from Minus4w. More games should run.
  • Fix a crash in the CPU processing.
  • Changed the colours to what Yape uses (much nicer)
  • Added FLASH attribute, so things now...flash. (Manic Miner keys, Monty pick-ups etc.)
  • Fixed the rendering frameskip - it was always skipping at least 1 frame *idiot*
  • Fixed the overflow flag (V) on the ADC instruction. Mercenary now works!
  • Added the new "joy" paramater
  • Fixed commando - added several undocumented NOP codes.
  • SOME vertical scrolling games work.
  • More Progress.








    I've managed to fix Mercenary, although it wasn't the BCD mode it was the overflow flag inside the ADC instruction. Anyway... Here (I hope) is the current version. Click on the screen and then use the cursor keys to move and space to shoot. F9 is frameskip which may help speed it up on some slower machines. I'll be doing a release of this soon for Plus4World, but in the meantime - Enjoy!

    This is pretty neat as it means I can show new things as code rather than video. However the new version of Java appears to be a little sluggish for some reason, and frame rate has dropped a lot. In the past I used to get upto 450FPS but that has now dropped to around 70fps - without scaling...pooh. I hate Java...

    Still, when all said and done - how cool is it to have xeo3 actually PLAYING in a web page!!

    Life in the old dog yet....

    I've managed to debug Minus4j using Eclipse. This is a JAVA based IDE and its pretty spiffy in places. Couse...being Java based, its a bit sluggish - even on my new monster PC. Oh well, at least I can single step my applet!

    So, which one hurdle down, another begins... I've ported a lot of Minus4 back to Minus4j (its pretty cool that the code bases are virtually identical, coz I can cut and paste most changes), and the bug I had was simple that the mainloop on Minus4w had changed a bit, so a quick change on the java side, and we're all go!

    Minus4j now has inverted characters, the flash attribute, and a proper hardware cursor (not that anyone really used it outside of basic of course... but still... I'm also trying to update the CPU module as well, as minus4j is prone to crashing, and doesn't run some games (like Mercenary). I'm having a little trouble getting Mercenary to work - oh it runs and all, but it doesn't get past the intro. I'm sure this was a BCD problem, but I've ported the BCD stuff back from Minus4w and its still fubar. Mmmm...

    What would be nice is if Plus4world could just allow EVERY game to be played online. Sure some wouldn't work, but I think most would and it would be easier to exclude some, then include them all.

    Anyway, back to work I guess. I need to try and fix this BCD issue (if I can find it), and then add an option for joyport swapping to the paramaters (another request). I would love to add sound, but I'll need to look into doing dynamic WAV's under java. I know the C64 emulator can do it, so I might disassemble that and have a peek.

    Tuesday, November 4, 2008

    Intermission....

    Albatross!! Albatross!!! Get yar Albatross here!


    okay... Got slightly side tracked as a beta of Call of Duty 5 came out today so I had to have a blast at it... FAB game, got to be one of my fav all time games the COD series. Anyway... Aside from that I'm trying to update Minus4j for Plus4world so they can get more games on line, and so its well....better.

    It does have some issues and I thought I'd port back some Minus4w stuff. This should be easy as the source for Minus4w originally came from Minus4j. So it was all going swimingly well, then BANG! It all fell apart. I have the drawing code ported back and as far as I can tell its now identical, except Minus4w works, and Minus4j jumps up and down like a rabbit on a pogo stick. So now I find myself in need of an applet debugger. Im sure it'll be obvious once I debug it, but until I do... I'm a bit stuck. Fek. I could undo it all and then just fix one issue at a time, but that seems silly as Minus4w is much bette over all.

    *sigh*

    Saturday, November 1, 2008

    Almost there....

    I've just about got my PC setup again, althought theres always going to be apps I've forgotten about and will only rediscover later on. I thought I could get away with just installing the C# Express edition for all my needs, but alas no. I really need macro support and it doesn't have source control built in so I'll have to install the full Visual Studio again. I do hope to do some C# Express projects for the debugger to allow people to write plug-ins without having to buy the full visual studio though.

    Speaking of source control... I've reinstalled Visual Source Safe so I can get access to my old repository but I'm thinking I want to install SubVersion. This would bring me upto date a little and allow others to check stuff in/out of my depo. Russell's been moaning at me for months to let him get access to the debugger and so he can keep upto date with the XeO3 source. I have come across a tool which converts VSS databases into subversion ones, so I'll have to give that a go - I like having all the history for them, but as long as I still have to old VSS repository I guess its not a huge issue.

    The guys wanting to do a CPC+ version of XeO3 got in touch (again - I missed them 1st time around; my bad), so we'll have to have a chat and see if they meet the criteria for offical developers (Yes, I'm a picky bastard...).

    I'm having a slight issue with my new install as it's a 64bit OS, my 32bit apps are struggling to talk to the parallel port. Still, once I get DevStudio installed, I'll see if I can fix all that. It should also mean I can release 32+64 bit versions, or I might take the opportunity to port them to C# and mono.

    I've also downloaded a VMPlayer and will get a mono vm image so I can start doing Linux support. This will let me play with Linux without having to dedicate a machine to it, or even reboot into it. (I hope - depends on how the free vm player works.)

    So with any luck... back to normal next week!

    Friday, October 31, 2008

    uniracers_credits


    uniracers_credits
    Originally uploaded by mikedailly
    So someone was asking who was who... so here we go (hope I remember it right!) Clockwise fomr the top-left.

    Robbie Graham - Artist
    Malcom Scot Maxwell - Game coder and project leader
    Dave Jones - Boss, Big cheese, and all round pest.
    Andrew Innes - Front end, stats and general coding.
    Martain Good - CG artist (did all the unicycles!)
    Steve Hammond - Manual
    Mike Dailly (Me!) - Level Editor, Uniracer compression, SNES framework and tools.
    Colin Anderson - Music and effects.
    Craig Arbuthnott - Head of testing
    And I cant remember the last two. Testers I think....?

    Head over to the staff pics on the Flickr account for better (all be it older!) pictures of some of us.

    Demo coders....

    There was a post on plus4 world about how to teach new people to code on the Plus4 and it got be thinking about some pet hates. Demo coders are renown for keeping sources to demos secret, never releasing anything but binarys in case someone steals their ideas. Others don't release code becasue, well... demos are usually hacks that are horrible bits of code and they don't want anyone to see just how much of a hack it is. Great Demos usually flow like works of art, but if you saw the internals, then its like being told how a magic trick was done, and the wonder falls away.

    Still, I was thinking.... I never really code demos because, well... I'm not very good at them. Sure I can code things so they run quickly, and I can code things so that they're small. But I've never been good at prducing great demos folk really want to see. That said, I think theres a market (as it were) for demos that simply show how to do something. Kind of like online tutorials, simple demos that show off a simple effect and how to pull it off. This would allow others to use it and do what I can't, make great demos - or perhaps even use the effect in a game!

    I was watching the demo posted here and was trying to think how they did the full screen scaling coz I think it would be cool in game. I think now I know but I also suspect that if the source was available I'd be much more interested in using/trying that I am now. Anyway, Csabo over at plus4 world is thinking about this too and I think its a great idea. If nothing else, it adds something valuable to the scene - which is what its all about now.

    Wednesday, October 29, 2008

    It's alive!!!!

    I've rebuilt my PC, got a hold of a version of Vista64 and got it all up and running. I've also installed my new copy of office so my email is working fully again, which brings me to another point. If anyones been trying to get in touch and I haven't responded then feel free to ping me again as email should be back to normal.

    I now have to reinstall all my normal software again, which will take a couple of evenings I guess, but I hope that by the weekend, I'll be back to normal - but with my fancy new quad core. I have also gotten two new terrabyte drives to try and get rid of all the little drives my PC was using, so with any luck... I shouldn't have to do this again for a long time!

    Tuesday, October 28, 2008

    New bits!

    My new bits have arrived at last! So I can finally get started on rebuilding my shattered life...err..PC. The motherboard looks pretty good and actually has 4 DIMM slots, not the 2 I thought it had (the picture was pretty small), this means I could go up to 8Gigs of RAM if I want to (thanks to Vista64).

    However...first things first. Build and reinstall is the job for tonight, if I get a chance - hope so. I'm gonna go and buy another 1Tb drive though so i can cut down on all the smaller drives I keep having to put it. My old primary was 160Gb, then I had a 240Gb and a 500Gb. So sod that, time to clean up and just get 2 1Tb drives. They're getting pretty cheap now, ebuyer actually had an external 1Tb for only £85(ish). This'll make life much easier and I'm beginning to get retro withdrawal!

    Sunday, October 26, 2008

    Picture Fun...

    I've been having fun with my new camera, and have been out specifically to take some nice piccys (something I plan to do more of if i get the chance!). I want to play more with the technique known as tilt-shifting. This is where you make real things look like models, and its very cool indeed given the right image. So I went up the law hill (the large hill bang smack in the middle of Dundee) and took a few images, then had a go applying the tilt shift effect to them. The image shown here is one of them, but I'm uploading more to my flickr account along with any other pictures I take (since they can stay full res there).

    So if you want to see some of my piccys, check our my flickr account now and then.

    New machine...

    Well, with pay day comes the chance to finally fix my machine. I've order the bits I need to rebuild my main machine and I must say, I'm really looking forward to actually sitting down and a proper PC and not using a laptop. When multi-monitor appeared back in windows 98 it really did change everything. Not that many took notice back then, but I've now been using more than one monitor for so long, I really take bad to laptops with a single machine. In fact, at home I have 3 montors, and at work 4! Yes, you read that right...I have a single machine with 4 montors attached! I really should take a picture of it sometime as its quite neat. It lets me have virtually all my applications open AND visible - its very cool. I do wish they would make newer PCI cards other than the NVidia 6200 or ATI 7000 (which isnt Vista compatable)- which are both pretty crap.

    So, I've bought a new motherboard that'll take my new quad-core CPU and 4gig of ram. To be honest, I'd be happy with a dual core, and 2-3gig ram but since I dont like doing this, I may as well make sure I dont have to upgrade for some time (a year or two at the least), so I've bought a good setup. Its costing about £250, but thats still less than half the price of an off the shelf full PC (from what I've seen...). I've also decided to install Vista64 (*sigh*) because I dont want to have to go through this again anytime soon... It does mean I'll have to either install DosBox, or rewrite the important ones. The other reason is so that I can create 32 and 64bit apps easily. I want my debugger to run in 64bit mode for example, and it also means I get access to ALL my RAM - which is nice... So yeah... hate it, but Im buggered.

    When I was in the US I got a stack of BluRay disks, and I was horrified (and disgusted) to see they've started to region code things. Now, I read somewhere that they do this because something might be released on disk in the US, but just be coming out at the Cinema over here in the UK. Now, you might think well...okay, we might just about give you that. But then I was reading through a list of region coded disks, and found out The Longest Day was also region coded. Now... it was released in 1962, so what the hell do they take us for. In todays climent, we're in a world market, not local - particually with the credit crunch having been in the US but affecting the world. So I think it's actually a form of racism. After all your giving preferential treatment to some contries, and not others - and thats racist; Particually given that their excuse of movie release dates is an obvious lie. Region coding pisses me off. I paid for the disk, I bought it legally when on holiday, so why shouldn't I be allowed to watch it? We're a global enonomy, so why should Joe Blogs from the US be allowed to watch it and I'm not.... Now I'll have to wait and get a multiregion bluray player. I'll tell you one thing though, I will have NO guilt getting a hidef media version of it to stream from my PC - I already own the fucker. I'm a big fan of buying things you use,watch or play. If you get a copy of anything and dont like it, delete and and dont buy it. If you do..then you should buy it - whatever it is. I have a stack of games I tried loved so bought - many are still shrunk wrapped and only opened when I go back to play them years later. So my region coded Disk will be the same. Still wrapped, but at least I own them.

    Sorry.... bit of a rant there.... Oh one thing though.... Some BluRay disks over there come with a PC media version, which is a FAB idea!! Well done those guys (whoever thought that up).

    Friday, October 24, 2008

    Past tools.

    I've just my old SNES framework source, so if I get a chance I'll clean it up and release it. Not sure who its of use to but its always fun to look at others code so... It does have a nice squareroot function in it, so you could always steal that. Its also (of course) 65816 based, so C64 SuperCPU users could steal more from it. If its of immediate interest let me know and I'll try and do it sooner....

    Speaking of SNES.... I found this video on youtube ( YouTubes great! ) of the end sequence to Lemmings II. I had pretty good fun doing this. Theres actually a single pixel on the front end screen that if you click it, you get to the end sequence without playing the whole game - see if you can find it. ;-)

    Tuesday, October 21, 2008

    Home sweet home....

    I'm finally back from Florida and back at work (pooh...), but until I get my main machine fixed I won't be doing much of anything. I just cant work with my laptop, its small keyboard and single screen. I could use its screen and an LCD I suppose, and plug a USB keyboard in, but it just doesnt feel right. I really am an old geezer stuck in his ways - oh well.

    If anyone needs any small task done, nows probably the time to ask :)

    Friday, October 17, 2008

    The Crazy Racing Games

    Racing GamesWhen you set in to look for the online racing games on the internet, you get over flooded with the huge number of websites that offer great racing games very different from each other. The results for the racing games will include the car racing games, bike racing games, truck racing games, street racing games, motor cycle racing games, off road and on road racing games, roller blade racing games, boat racing games and the horse racing games. Among all these racing games, the street racing games are very popular as you get to taste the flavor of risk in not on the real terms but at least on the internet game. These games allow us to perform the most dangerous tricks with the virtual car excluding the risk of any injury to oneself.

    The various racing games are driving all the players really very crazy. Not only the youngsters, but the old age people also like to play these games. These racing games allow the player to play the game through out the day without any cost. You can play the racing games all alone and if you want any competition with your friend, then you can compete by playing these madding racing games.

    Kids Games: A Boon Or A Curse?

    Kid's GamesThe games of computer have become a very popular source of fun especially during the free time. But the recent stats show that the computer games for the kids have more bad effects on the mental and physical health of the kids. The kids’ game features a huge amount of violence which as a matter of fact affects badly the minds of the kids. But the children are now more into these games. According to the recent study about the kids’ game, around 32% of the kids like to play the violent games on the internet. Only about 2% of the children like to play the games which are beneficial for them.

    The niche of the kids’ games is very same to the other online computer games. It includes the player who fights with the enemies to win. Due to the violence in the games, the kids’ adapt the violent behavior personally also. The kid’ games have now become the most addicted games among the kids. Although the kids’ computer games are full of curses, but if they are played just as a game or if the games are selected properly, the kids’ games can be very helpful to educate the kids.

    Sunday, October 12, 2008

    Disney world fun and games.

    Still here having a blast. Kids are loving it of course, and its a shame I'm being forced to relax and have fun too! I've not done anything over here, and I'm not sure I'll manage until I get back home and get my machine rebuilt. I was looking at some off the shelf PC's, but they're so damned expensive I'll probably rebuild it myself; I only really needa CPU+Motherboard I think so...

    I got a new camera over here too. A nice Nikon D60, very cool. Piccys are virtually always just brill from it without having to do anything special, and the manual settings are great fun. The piccy on the left was taken with it on auto setting. It just works...fab cam.

    Anyway... off to church and then downtown Disney for some more shopping! It's a hard life....

    Thursday, October 9, 2008

    Busy busy busy!


    Been busy having some serious family fun so not had much time to do much - well, anything really. Still really needed to chill so here we are!

    Kids have been in the pool a lot, and while I've only dangled my feet in, I've been lovin' it!

    Still, time to eat I think, it must have been about 30min since I last ate! :)

    Wednesday, October 8, 2008

    Orlando!!

    I'm currently in orlando having a family break, it's long over due really but I'm loving it!We had a great flight over as the plane had TVs in the back of the seats, so you could pick your own films or TV programs. It also had some good games to play, so Rebecca and I had great fun - I didn't even get my laptop out I was having so much fun!

    It's been raining a bit here, usually for about 1/2 hour a day, and it's incredibly heavy (as usual), but because of that, it's not getting as hot as it can get which is great!

    We've actually spent more time in walmart than anywhere else just about! The misses is loving it! We spent most of yesterday in the Animal Kingdom and eventually had to leave cause the rain was so heavy we were soaked through. Our clothes dried pretty easily, but our socks/shoes were soaked. I also appear to have killed my iPod, as my bag got soaked through, and the screen is full of watter - bugger.... I'm trying to let it dry out before trying it, but iPods never really switch off so I'm not hopefull. *sniff*

    Saturday, September 27, 2008

    Plus4 world lives again!

    Plus4 world now has a new home!! Although it still has some way to go in terms of files etc, you can now at least log on and use it again.

    http://www.plus4world.com

    Thanks again to Csabo for all his hard work!!

    Friday, September 26, 2008

    Bloody PC's!!!!

    Well, it looks like I've had a hard disk failure, or rather its almost dead (I think). It keeps locking up, and it can take an age to access things sometimes, which is usually a sign your disks on the way out. This is a bugger an no mistake....

    It means I've got to buy a new disk, reinstall everything, not to mention try and find all the software I use but forgot about... little utilities I take for granted.

    I also have the choice of installing Vista or XP again. I hate vista, so the choice would seem pretty clear.... but that said, I dont really want to have to do this again. The hard disk that failed is about4 years old and its been that long since Ive had to install things again, but I hate doing it - who doesn't.

    Anyway, all this means that things will now move pretty slowly as I need to do this before I can get going on my various projects again. Bugger.

    I hate PCs.....

    Wednesday, September 24, 2008

    Debugging.

    I've been discussing the debugger and trying to gauge how people develop over on lemon64 (HERE!), so if your interested head on over there.

    I still think this project has the chance of being invaluable to the retro comunity, particually if I can get emulator writers to pick it up and implement the STUB (which I think/hope should be minimal work for them). This then gives a stable, consistent debugger across the board and should allow developers a great code base for doing tools and other features, not to mention develop new hardware and games.

    I'm actively looking for feedback and suggestions on how you develop and what you'd liketo see in a debugger, so feel free to join in the discussion on lemon64.

    Saturday, September 20, 2008

    Plus4 world gone....

    Well, it would seem that yet another problem has hit plus4world, emucamp has had many problems reciently and now it seems its domain name has expired! I'm not sure where all the plus4 folk have gone to talk/complain about it, but I think now is the time to bite the bullet and move the site - enough is enough. Emucamp was okay, but its so incredibly unreliable now it's not funny, and I'd hate to lose the site because of some badly maintained server.

    I tried to mail Lando, but he appears to have changed email addresses since I last spoke to him - which is a bugger....

    Friday, September 19, 2008

    Alive and kickin'

    Well, I appear to be back in the world of the living again. I finally had to take a couple of days off to try and kick this cold and it appears to have worked, so after a reasonably lazy couple of days I'm finally sitting in front of my machine again looking back at the debugger.

    When I started this I thought it would be a reasonably small job, and one I could quickly do and get it out there so I could progress with more interesting things, but alas... this was not to be. It's turning into yet another mamoth task, and one thats eating up yet more of my limited free time. Sure, once its all working things will be great! But that still looks like being a long way off for now. I may have to scale my initial release back a little so I can at least release something and not have this as yet another project that never seems to appear.

    What I'll probably do is finish the Plus4 debugging so that its pretty good to use, and then do the emulator (TCP/IP) stub for everyone else, then release that. I know I wanted to get the C64 version done first, but that will take ages, and since it requires a real machine hooked up, I can only do it in my work room at home. Once I get TCP/IP support for emulators, I can carry on doing debugging features using my laptop anywhere I like using Minus4 (or my C64/Spectrum emultor for that matter).

    I gave Russell my spectrum emulator and he's be rewriting it in C# with the idea of playing with Silverlight, but this means he's doing a Z80 debugger and will use the plug in interface to support his emuator.

    So....thats where we are just now, lets hope I can kick things up a gear and do some actual work! Of course...I go away on holiday to Florida in two weeks, so that's gonna get in the way, although I've bought an extra battery for my laptop, so hope to do some stuff on the plane there.

    Wednesday, September 17, 2008

    Computer Games: The Easy Way To Have Fun

    Computer Games
    A mouse, joystick and a keyboard are required if you wish to play the computer games. In order to get the feeling of the live game, you can add the speakers and the head phones too. If you want to play the most recent introduced computer games, the very important mandatory thing that you have to do is to install the latest version of Windows operating system.

    The computer games are accessible on the dedicated game console platforms like the X box, Game cube and the very famous Play station 2. The very challenging thing about the computer games is to maintain the pace with the always changing PC hardware industry. A lot of graphics and CPU's have been coming up in the recent times. The computer games are enjoyed by every section of the people and all the age group also. The computer games are considered to be the best way for time pass and increase knowledge of the people. It helps the small children to learn how to use the computer and gain knowledge. They become quicker in thinking and their thinking ability increases.

    Thus, the computer games are now a mandatory thing for every child. Instead of the outdoor games, the computer games are liked by the people.

    A New Addiction: Cricket Games

    Cricket Games
    Majority of the people enjoy playing the game of cricket on the mobile phones, PC, portable play stations and a lot of other means of playing games. Enjoying and playing the cricket games on the internet is truly very exciting and a superb way to spend the free time. A lot of the games designers who are the hard core fans of the game of cricket bring the online game very real. The cricket games that are played on the internet are very rich in the animation and graphics.

    Thousands of people are their, who are very big fan of cricket and wish to get associated with this game some how or the other. In playing or watching cricket is not on their cards, they can play the game and enjoy it virtually. The can play the virtual cricket as a lot of cricket games has come up which are very advanced and a great fun.

    While playing the cricket games on the internet, you can select the games according to your own choice. It may be one day matches and even the test matches. A lot of people like to play the cricket games these days as they get a golden chance to connect with the game of cricket. Therefore, playing the cricket game is a superb means of fun and thrill.

    Sunday, September 14, 2008

    Killing Games: The Adventurous Mode To Have Fun.

    Killing Games
    Killing games is all about two computerized players fighting with each other. Both the performers hold the same place in the competition. Hitting back and winning the matches are the chances for both players were just equivalent. The game is completely exciting and thrilling and a player is availed with different choices such as fighting, shooting etc. these games wisely observes the fighting ability of the performer but that too in exciting way. Nowadays people are getting attracted towards these games as they are full of thrill and excitement. Many reviews shows that these games are quite famous and the most demanded one.

    To make it more interesting and exciting it will be suggested that two players should play this game simultaneously. Internet is the finest means which shows some of the incredible killing games. Those who desire to play this game on internet can go ahead otherwise internet also give the facility to download these games. For downloading killing games you just need to follow some instructions. There are many sites which offer hundreds of killing games. Your enthusiasm to play these games increases when you find some good storyline in killing games. So these games help you to make use of your brain.

    Become A? Hero With The Superb Action Games.

    Action Games
    You really get thrilled when you watch any action scene in movies. Good sound effects can give more thrills to the action. In fact there are some actions which are breath taking. So what about action games on your computer? Some of the fantastic action games creators have done great animation work which is really appreciable. Action games usually include a story line as stories always attract people. Everyone is ready to listen to a story especially action stories. The creator?s imagination and thinking is applied to the action games that you play on your computer. They are so interesting that it just takes away your breath and you just can?t stop playing it.

    Space fights, adventures, jet planes colliding in the air just think or imagine any of action and you will surely find them used in this game. You can find them action games on internet. In fact may of the action games are free online. Action games are really exciting not only for the teenagers but your whole family can really enjoy these games. This game examines the ability of the performer and how they respond during the game. They also sharpen the ability of the player to judge. Action games cannot be called as fully fun games they rather help as a training tool if they are used in a proper manner.

    Those free online games that are gaining popularity nowadays are- arcade games, card games, strategy games, sports games, casino games, board games, puzzle games and shooting games. Most of the action games on internet can be downloaded with no cost. Just look for a site for the games and you can play any of the action games. They are best means of entertainment. But it will be suggested to play these games in small doses only otherwise you will be addictive to these games. So to make your life

    Friday, September 12, 2008

    You wait. Time passes......

    Yeah, I've not been doing much past few days. I've got a bit of a cold so I'm feeling a bit pooh, and we've had some birthdays etc. so I've not had much time. I might get a chance to get back into gear over the weekend, but it depends on this cold...*sigh*

    Thursday, September 11, 2008

    Mobile Games: The Mostly Played Games

    Mobile Games
    Waiting in a queue is always troublesome and very boring. But if you get something that is very interesting and exciting, the time passes in a fraction of second. One such thing to do for some entertainment is to plat the mobile games. It is among the fastest developing industries in the entire world during these days. It has become so popular that people are now becoming more and more addicted to it.

    Not only the teens, but the adults also like to play the mobile games. As a matter of fact, it is seen that the adults interact more with the mobile games as compared to the teens. Now the mobile phones have come up in wide ranges which has very wide screen, great color, graphics which allow the mobile user to benefit and enjoy from the mobiles. Due to the development in the technology of the mobile phone, more and more mobile games have come up. Some of the most popular and liked mobile games include casino, cards, puzzles games, shooters and many more.

    The advancement in the mobile phones like the additional feature Bluetooth and the infrared have enabled the users to enjoy the mobile games.

    Bike Games: Get The Fun Out In You

    Bike Games
    Are you looking for the online bike games? The online search engine is the perfect place to get the various portals for the same. But due to so much competition, it is becoming very difficult to select the best games websites for accessing the best games site. Still, searching online can help you to get the sites on online games.

    The people who love to play games on the internet should look out for the bike games. Boys always remain boys as they love to taste every bit of adventure and risk. If you guys want to sense the same fun, then the bike games can be the best thing to try. It is full of adventure and fun. Some of the mostly liked bike games include unicorn rider, mibi ke 2, motocross 3, motor rally, doom riders and prom racers. These are few of the most loved and played bike games among the guys as well as the girls.

    Be it young boys or the adults, the bike games is the favorite online game. It is now becoming more and more interesting due to the development in the graphics and introduction of 3D. So get started with the bike games and enjoy the thrill!

    Saturday, September 6, 2008

    Online Games - The Easiest Way To Have Fun

    Online games
    The games are an extremely addictive from of the entertainment, particularly the electronic games. The online games provide loads of hours of playability which are enjoyed by mostly all the gamers, regardless of any age or gender.

    The games developers have moved a step ahead in making the electronic games very enjoyable. The game developers with the help of the internet have introduced a latest genre of the online games. Here is little info related to the techniques on how to play the online games without any hassle.

    It is very easy to play the online games. By merely looking into the well known search engines, you can very easily get to know the different popular portal that offers online games services.

    The gaming trends have truly had a very noticeable effect on the industry of the online gaming as a lot of people are now taking the online games to entertain themselves and pass hours with loads of fun without paying much for so much fun. Earlier, playing games on internet was only imaginary, but now due to the development of the online games, people are enjoying the games online. They actually feel to be the certain character in the games.

    Friday, September 5, 2008

    The Thrilling Action Games

    Action Games
    You get very excited at the time when you watch some thrilling movie or any such scenes. The actions in the television along with the sound effect make us feel that we are actually experiencing that. So what about the action games on the computers?

    The people who make the action games make superb animations which may include an interesting story line too as it always magnetize us. The online action games make use of the story line and great action sequence which almost take away the breath of every player who are very interested in playing action games and adventure.

    The space fights, adventures and the planes that collide in the air and the other action sequence make the game very interesting. Mostly all the games which are played online are free and very easy to access. The action games provide a lot of thrill and fun to the players especially to the teenagers who are more interested in these games. The action games are personally very beneficial to the players also. They help to widen the thinking and judgment of the players. It can be a true training tool if it is taken properly.

    Some of the very famous action games include Board Games, Arcade Games, Strategy Games, Card Games and the Casino Games. A lot of portals have come up in the recent time that offer free action games. Therefore, have fun with the action game and taste the adventure in your life!