Over the time I did some tests on Android. Not only with OpenGL but mainly overall to see what could work and how. Unfortunately Android is far from perfect (what ever is?) and has some issues also affecting OpenGL development on Android.

3D Games on Android…
Games are probably the main market working with 3D on Mobile Phones nowadays. On the iPhone we have some great examples of cool and nice looking 3D games such as Ravensword and many others. They look good and also run very smoothly (especially on a 3GS, loading times are most of the times much better).
Now, for Android we also have some good Game examples with the just announced winner of the Android Developer Challenge 2 in the category of games: Speed Forge 3D. The really beautiful WipeOut clone gives you a nice 3D game example on Android. Another example is Mystique by Bendroid. The 3D Ego-Survival-Horror in the style of Silent Hill and The Ring is sure to give you some creeps if you play it in a dark room, at night, feeling lonely.

…and the issues!
Now if you compare Speed Forge 3D or Mystique with Ravensword or Gameloft’s upcoming N.O.V.A you probably will get jealous and drool all over the videos. No question: SF3D and Mystique are great, Kudos to the developers, but compared to the iPhone they are far behind.
The big question should be: Why? And the answer is neither simple nor a single one in my opinion.

1. Heterogeneous Phone Market
One big thing coming up with the release of new Android handhelds is the inconsistency throughout the phones. Android itself is a specification and a referential implementation. Now, most phone manufacturer alter some things or add their own implementations of something such as OpenGL. Therefore, it is already the case that with every new release of a mobile phone based on Android you see updates of many Apps popping up because of problems or even crashes on the new device.
Let’s have a look at Speed Forge 3D: I have a HTC Magic and it runs… OK. Not absolutely fluently but playable. Now, a friend of mine has a Samsung Galaxy (or i7500) and he can barely play it until it crashes. Now the Droid from Motorola entered the market with another graphics chip and a larger screen. Many new “properties” to test against and to deal with. The iPhone on the other side may have been updated over the time but the environment stayed nearly the same. And something that runs on the 3GS will also run on the 3G, just load a little longer. So, as time goes by more and more Android devices will come out and will further diverse the market.

2. The Dalvik VM
As always when it comes to Java you will hear people say:

It’s slow because it’s Java!
Java will always be slow!
Forget Java, use the NDK!

(just saw the same posts pop up on the newsgroups and forums again)
They will argue that a Virtual Machine can never give the speed you need (some also tend to forget that .net is a VM interpreted environment). They will argue that the Garbage Collector slows everything down. And if we look back about 10 years they really had a point, but nowadays that may not be total crap but is just not that easy to say.

First of all let’s have a look around at Java-based 3D games, based on the very popular, updated and fast libraries JOGL and/or LWJGL. There would be the experiment Jake2: A Quake2 clone made in Java based on JOGL and LWJGL to have a comparison. If you have a look at the benchmarks you will see it is hard to argue that Java is that slower over the native implementation. And engines such as jMonkeyEngine support the Java faction. The demos over there such as Spirits and other games like Trible Trouble and Poisonville on the other side show that there are very good possibilities to use this object-oriented programming language as your development base.
The thing is that not Java per sé is the problem but as with every programming language the code optimization and the execution environment, in this case the Virtual Machine. Even Tim Sweeney from Epic Games suggests that functional programming and Garbage Collection is the future. The newest Sun Java VM and other VM implementations show what is possible to do with optimization within a managed environment. A good Garbage Collector (GC) and a very good Just-in-Time (JIT) Compiler such as in Suns current Java implementation speed up not only the application but also development itself because of less time spending for the memory management.
But why still the speed problems? As already said, even if Java is interpreted and helps with the memory management you still have to think about what is happening beneath. Most applications tend to just create one instance after the other and do not really care about memory management. This may work on a desktop system but will bring problems to you on Mobile Phones. Things like weak references, caches, volatile and transient are forgotten but highly important terms in Java development. Especially Mobile Applications still have to really care about memory even with all this technically highly fledged phones. Care about the memory more than about computation on modern smartphones.

Nevertheless, even with these more or less “simple” tricks Android still has some problems that you need to remember during development. Most of these result from the Dalvik VM. The current Dalvik implementation on Android phones does not support JIT nor is the Garbage Collector any good.
As no JIT is available all code is interpreted on time and not pre-compiled or anything. On a limited device such as a mobile phone this results in slowdowns. Therefore, it is important to pre-load everything you need and cache as much as you can to have a fluent gaming experience during e.g. a level.
Another thing is the current GC in Dalvik: Avoid it ^^’ Sure, you cannot really avoid the GC directly but try to not release too many objects during gameplay (or fire it by yourself) as the GC will slow your phone so down that even the OS will need time to react. This is also something that can be managed with caching and a good manual memory management. Currently, up to Android 1.6 an application may use up to 12MB of memory. With Android 2.0 this has been upped above 20MB, but as a game should support many platform versions (the issue why I am posting this), 12MB will probably be the limit for a while.

3. The Android OpenGL ES implementations
Another thing that bothers the development of OpenGL ES applications on Android is the again heterogeneous availability of specifications. Android itself by SDK supports OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1. The official current OpenGL ES version is already at 2.0. While 1.1 is backwards compatible to 1.0, 2.0 has no backwards compatibility. OK, its to note that 2.0 is somehow pretty fresh and you cannot ask for the newest technology in Mobile Phones. But most Android phones at the moment only support 1.0, for example the HTC Magic whereas the Motorola Droid should be able (hardware-based) to support 2.0.

As 2.0 introduced programmable shaders to the hardware the step is a large one. That is probably also the reason why OpenGL ES 2.0 is the foundation for WebGL, the upcoming and already beta-available 3D JavaScript interpreter for Browsers such as Firefox and the WebKit Engine. So, even if you argue that the newest technology may not be always available in Mobile Phones, as 2.0 is progressing so fast at the moment the diversity between 1.0 on current phones and 2.0 on more and more platforms can result in “support” or portability problems of applications.
The support/portability problem is one of the issues. But more relevant is the functionality available in 1.0 and 1.1. The iPhone is based on OpenGL ES 1.1 and by that it has a big advantage over most Android phones: Vertex Buffer Objects (VBO)! As posted before my tutorial ports, OpenGL ES does not support primitive rendering (glBegin/glEnd). This is good as it will nevertheless be dropped out of the OpenGL standard. In OpenGL ES you have to use Vertex Arrays and/or Vertex Buffer Objects, which are faster anyway. BUT 1.0 only supports Vertex Arrays and no VBOs. This is one big disadvantage not only in speed but in development. You can argue that it is possible to program an application that supports both with tagging the sections but as it comes to mobile development you always try to comprehend everything as much as possible without acting on too many specifics.
Two other important things when it comes to game development are that 1.0 does not support multi-texturing on its own (there are ways, but those are tricks) and it does not support the automatic mipmap generation. Both are necessities if you want to do such nice things like Ravensword or N.O.V.A.
Another thing are the phone specific OpenGL ES implementations. Not only versions but also manufacturers provide different implementations with their phones. For example the Samsung Galaxy has a known very weak OpenGL implementation. There are already several published articles on how to add the HTC implementation to a rooted Galaxy. And as more and more manufactures will enter the Android market in the coming month this will probably get worse.

So, what can be concluded from this? Actually not much but 1.0 <= 1.1 < 2.0! There are some tricks here and there to deal with some things under 1.0 but overall you just have to accept the fact and optimize around what is missing. Or you limit your development to 1.1 (at least for now). But by that you will loose many phones such as the Magic or G1, which probably are the most widespread Android phones at the moment.

4. General and Specific OpenGL (ES) Paradigms and Tactics
As with every programming language or library there are several Best Practices that should be remembered during development. The same thing applies to OpenGL. There are many posts in the net on how to optimize your OpenGL code and you should definitely use Google to keep you up-to-date. I just want to point out two important things (in my opinion) for mobile development.

The first thing is to reduce your draw calls! This is not limited to mobile devices but OpenGL in general. But because of the limited hardware versus a Desktop system, this is even more important. Each draw call is not necessarily bad but in sum are slow. Now, most people do enormous, cool architectures with self-drawing objects that are instanced over and over again. This is nice from an object-oriented point of view but is bad on a mobile device. If you want to do something good and fast for Android work with overall handlers. This relates to what I said about caching. To have super classes, handlers or factories that collect all changed elements or all objects that need to be drawn and only that Object fires the draw call is the way to go. This may look like a limitation but this is not only good for the speed of your application but also reduces the possibility of asynchronous errors when instances of deep objects are computed while the rest already handles another request.
The second thing correlates with what I said about memory handling and caching: Reduce your texture binding calls! To rebind your textures again and again and switch them back and forth is also bad for the overall performance. I know that it is tempting and Android with its nice resource loader somehow invites you to have hundreds of single texture files and load them again and again. But this will get you into trouble really fast. First of all, reduce the calls by utilizing again a super class, a texture handler with some kind of caching mechanism. Another possibility is to merge several textures into one large texture and offset the texture mapping coordinates accordingly. This is easy to do and just requires a small asset pipeline but the advantage is huge.

Both things suggest some very important points that have to be taken into account in the architecture and early development. Therefore, always tend to fulfil the mentioned points already while you are planing.

5. General Mobile Development Paradigms
As well as for OpenGL there are some rules regarding Mobile Development in general. There are also several posts on the net about this topic but just to sum up what I already coped in the above text: A Mobile Device is no Desktop!
Many people come from the Desktop development and are real geniuses there. They make the best applications, fast, functionality perfect and have wonderful graphical user interfaces. BUT what works on a Desktop does not necessarily work like that on a mobile device.
JavaME made it necessary to go back to Java 1.3.1 programming style; To forget about Generics; To forget about Enumerations and just use the “old ways”. Now, with something like the Android SDK, which allows to use nearly the full Java5 specification people just copy their desktop applications into the Android projects and this will make problems. All the things I pointed out above result from that premise as the desktop is the more forgiving (because more powerful) platform.
Things like creating hundreds of instances, using hundreds of different files, not working with in-memory data but reloading everything over and over again are bad… bad… and even worse, really bad! Do not get fooled by all the technical specifications of the mobile devices. You cannot compare the CPU and the RAM with the desktop pendent. I recommend to have a look “back” at the JME development and the experience people made there. Do not copy it one-to-one but use it as a guideline and convert it into a comprehensible Android project. Most problems, most errors, most failures that are posted and reported result from the unused experience made in that mobile development area. Reuse that knowledge, reuse their principles, their ideas and you will avoid many problems. And as there are enough “new” problems do not trip into the old ones.

In conclusion
Please do not get me wrong: My opinion about Android is high, I have one on my own and I love it. Love developing on it, love the SDK updates. The only thing I want to point out is that development on Android phones and Android itself has to start to keep these five things in mind. The next three to six month mark an important state with Android where to go and with at least the noted points you should be good to go.
So, go out there and really work on it to do the best f***in’ 3D Android game of them all (and comment about it here ^^’)!

The Chronicles of Spellborn

The Chronicles of Spellborn was a bold try to do something completely out of line from UO, Everquest or World of Warcraft. The studio from Netherlands licensed the Unreal 2.5 engine and created their own story, their own environment, their own world! Main focus was put on the fighting system, which features a complex looking but very special and good kind of active and live fighting, with skill-based tiers. Moving, jumping, attacking from behind gets more interactive and it encourages to test your skill-tiers, similar to Guild Wars, because of the alignment and limitations in the slots.
Unfortunately TCOS could not fully keep up to the (and my) expectations. It was polished but too little content was available. Some people also argued that the quest descriptions were missing concrete directions. I liked that, as it was no following arrows and points but really reading the quests, the logs, the text. As the quest and discussion system also features some kind of answer selection, sometimes you can change your stand and the mood of NPCs to you. Something I also like.

So, just head over to the official website and download the game. It is worth at least a quick look and maybe the community will bring Spellborn back to live, somehow like Ryzom.

Pictures taken from the official Website: http://spellborn.acclaim.com/

How? This cannot be possible. This must be a joke. Please be joking. In reality they finished Duke Nukem 4 Ever and will release it. Broussard told everyone that they hit a milestone. This must be marketing.

Update 5

Somehow the Duke still lives (of course)! Scott Miller posted at his Facebook site that the current state is more of a pause than the death of the Duke (who can never die as we all know ^^’). Also some new images emerged with the post. I think they are great and have to still believe that I will see the Duke again.

Update 4

Now, some new footage popped up. Actually it is no new footage but the full segment not shown on the Jace Hall show, when he visited 3DRealms and had the chance to play it. I think it looks actually good and somehow finished. The idea with the controlling tentacles look good and the weapons are awesome as always. I really hope we will see this game in some time…

Update 3

After more and more news about how 3DRealms possibly refused 30 Millions and Take 2′s action of suing 3DRealms for 12 Millions and Source Code as well as Assets the first, more or less official statement has been made by the remaining executives at 3DRealms. It seems that 3DRealms still exists as a company but had to let go of all their developers in the beginning of May. Everything stated can be interpreted in many ways but I still have hope. It was also reported that Miller, Broussard and other Executives will give a full official statement some time later. So let’s hope everything gets at least clarified.

Update 2

Voodoo Extreme got their hands on 28 Hi-Res Screenshots of the “probable” game. The screens also contain a set of Story Tables/World Chart offering what Duke Nukem Forever could have been. The video below already showed our favourite “Stadium” level (but I liked “L.A. Rumble” more ^^’) and it seems that this would have been the entry into the game, as Duke plays his “historical documents” as a game, in the game. I am sorry, but again I need a moment…*morphingtoweepingwillow*

Update

One of the 3DRealms Animators Bryan Brewer, who worked on Duke Nukem Forever, released a Reel of his work done for the game. If this is the real deal, and this is actual gameplay footage with some story hints and everything, this would have been exactly everything a Duke3D BNC-Net gamer could have wished for. I am sorry, but I need a moment…*cryingoutloud*

Tomorrow Telltale Games will release its interpretation of new Tales of Monkey Island. Based on its known Engine, with a new Storyline split into 5 episodes of enormous fun (at least I hope… and I am pretty sure about it). I will post more about it during the week as I pre-ordered it, of course. But for now, a small trailer…

Bow Street Runner – Crime Scene

The wonderful created game gives you the ability to search around, look at evidence, talk to people and try to chit-chat them into giving you clues. “Bow Street Runner” uses real actors playing their parts very well and are staged into the pre-rendered backgrounds you can traverse (basically like Myst, but with far more fluent and accurate controls).
In addition to simple pixel hunting there are extremely well designed action puzzles as you have to pick a lock with specific movements with your mouse or listen to a moving conversation with a jar.
While playing through the game you get the opportunity to try yourself on some mini games as well as you can achieve higher ranks with the Runners as you progress. These can be fasten up as there are special bonus achievements (e.g. save someones life).
As it is a Shockwave game you do not have the chance to save your progress but at the end of every episode you get a special progress code that gets saved onto your computer (probably through a cookie). Additionally you can send this code to your E-Mail address. And as the episodes have a moderate length it is no big negative point.

Bow Street Runner – Suicide?

I have to say the five episodes adventure impressed me. It is made in tradition to old games like Bad Mojo, Tex Murphy, Phantasmagoria, Gabriel Knight and others that were gaming hits in the mid 90s (I liked them!). But in contrary to some bad examples that just made you click yourself through pre-rendered or pre-filmed scenes this one motivates through its distinct art style, historical correctness and the interesting twist between detective work and action riddle solving.

I recommend you go over to the “Bow Street Runner” site and get a picture of what I presented you here about the game. This is a wonderful example of how it should be done to motivate the player and to make a very well furbished game. I hope there will be more games of such caliber as I think these are great games especially to speed up the online game distribution. “You don’t know Jack!” is another example of a wonderful idea predestined for Flash games.

PS: Here is an engine that could be used or extended for such projects ^^’ (No, I would never self-advertise)

Today Telltale finally revealed the new brand: StrongBad! For all those of you who do not not StrongBad go and visit Homestarrunner to get your E-Mails answered!
I am a very big fan of StrongBad and “LIMOZEEN”, watching it every week! Therefore I am pretty excited (as you can tell, otherwise I wouldn’t post it ^^’). I recommend you to watch this episode about StrongBad in an Anime-Style if you do not know StrongBad at all as it is one of my favorites.

Not much is known at the moment I am writing this but the title will be fabulous Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (SBCG4AP) and it will be some kind of classic adventure, like the Sam and Max Seasons but evolving around StrongBadia and its habitants. So a 3D Point’n'Click Adventure as we like it. Matt and Mike Chapman (the geniuses) will be involved in the development.
There will be five episodes released monthly starting June, downloadable through the WiiWare system by an unknown price. The game will feature WiiConnect24 (in what way nobody knows… but jesus!).

I hope we will be able to play other characters as StrongMad or do Crank Calls and use the Teen Girl Squad ^^’.

*update*
Telltale Games released the first Trailer with ACTUAL GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE and Images right on http://www.telltalegames.com/strongbad or watch it here..right NOW!

As delicacy a video of LimoZEEN Live in Atlanta after the jump!

I got my first computer in ’89, a AMIGA 500! My first very own computer which I loved and used year over year (and I still have it). I will never forget the classic Demo IRAQ by Animators which is one of my absolute favourites as I still follow the scene through the decades. Just got me more into computers as well as games like Giana Sisters, Silkworm, Maniac Mansion and many more. That’s why I am a big fan of all those emulators for different system out there.

Probably the most successful is the Nintendo Wii. Wait? What, the “New-Gen” Wii Console? Yes, this Nintendo Wii! With it’s Wii-Shop Channel it offers you the ability to download-to-own all those great old games from the NES, SNES, Turbografx, MegaDrive and many more. “The Legend of Zelda”, “Super Metroid”, The “Castlevania” Series, “Altered Beast”, “Golden Axe” to name some. Actually as I think the games are pretty expensive (5€ for the cheapest games, up to 10€) measured by their age, I already have spent to much money and time on them and probably will much more ^^’.
For those who do not own a Wii or want to play other old games I collected some common known good emulators.

ScummVM
To those who remember the SCUMM System I would point out the ScummVM Project. And to all you others: Damn scumbags ^^’! Read and learn!
Scumm was LucasArts’ (LucasFilm at that time) Adventure Scripting Engine. Fabulous games as Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and Indiana Jones are based on it! Written also by Ron Gilbert, who just announced his new project, it was one surety for the success of LucasFilms at that time (besides Gilbert and Schafer). So who loved those old skool games and many more back then (Beneath a Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen to name a few), go ahead and download ScummVM.
ScummVM is a Virtual Machine that emulates all old gaming frameworks (mainly SCUMM but many have been implemented like Sierras AIG …) to allow you to play all those original Adventures that gave us so much fun. It is available for several platforms on the market, not only the PC but UNIX, MacOS X, NDS, Symbian, Amiga and so on.

PicoDrive
Another great emulator for PDAs and Symbian Phones is PicoDrive. It emulates an old Sega MegaDrive/Genesis System to allow you to play classics like Sonic – The Hedgehog or Golden Axe.
The Cyclone 68000 based emulator for WM PDAs is just one example of those many many emulators for nearly every system that was ever build. But especially on a good Symbian Phone this is just fun. To play Ghouls’n'Ghosts or Sonic or Streets of Rage (The Original) is sometimes better than playing through graphically great but boring nowadays games.

PCSX2
A more modern approach for emulation is PCSX2, a Playstation 2 emulator for Windows PCs. Playstation 2? you might ask. Yes, the PS2! The PS2 that still is being sold by Sony Computer Entertainment to compensate the PS3 sales. And as such the emulator works better every new release but has the flaw that it needs an original PS2 BIOS, and those are solely copyrighted to Sony. Therefore the emulator is somewhat legal but delivered without a PS2 BIOS. But today’s computer generation probably know enough possibilities to find these, but I am so not encouraging this ^^#.
As said the emulator works good. Not perfect, but good. An overview of the games that are playable, PCSX2 has put up a compatibility chart. There are many games like Final Fantasy or Metal Gear that are nearly flawlessly playable. But one requirement is a very good computer as the emulator and it’s plugins need a good load of CPU Power!

WinUAE and TBL Demos
As introduction I told you about my old Amiga500 and the Demos I loved to watch. I still love the Scene and it’s outcome. One of my favourite groups throughout the years are TBL, The Black Lotus.
Those magicians at the keyboard have created more masterpieces than Kubrick or Spielberg. And even if they made some PC Demos over the years, there best works are on the Amiga System. Silkcut, Starstruck, Ocean Machine or Little Nell to point my favourites out (more on pouet.net). They fascinate by teasing out even the last crunch of the System, the last breath it can bare.
To watch those Demos you must have a Amiga System or you must stick with the screen caps. But there is one alternative: The WinUAE! The Amiga Emulator is commonly known to play most TBL Demos at a decent speed rate. Besides Demos you can also play games like those old Cinemaware classics. So this is probably a good solution to feel this old AmigaOS feeling.

Again THX to all Site- and Emulator-Makers for their time and effort to give us this fun (and images). For a very good overview of all those Emulators around have a look at AEP Emu.

Two of those things that troubled me the last weeks (besides Christmas and New Year) were the announcements or better first/new materials of Street Fighter IV and Duke Nukem Forever (And YES! I always believed it will be released…).

Street Fighter IV
First of all Street Fighter IV was announced some weeks ago with a very stylish trailer.
After much speculation about which dimension Street Fighter IV will conquer (3D like Street Fighter EX3 or 2D like the old Street Fighter World Games, which we liked so much) two weeks ago 1UP (better EGM) had an exclusive first look at an early development stage of the game… and damn, it looks very very good.

It will be a 2.5D fighting game as the whole graphics are 3D (not really classic Cel-Shading but very pastel like texturing and colouring) but the fighting will be on a traditional 2D layer with some additional special effects and environment interaction. Not much is known at this moment as the Capcom states that the development has just started, so the release won’t be before the end of 2008 (and a new “Happy New Year” post ^^’) but EGM managed to get some information out of the developers.
The characters of Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Dhalsim are already somehow integrated. No final word on the character selection later on. Additionally to classic “Hadokens” and fighting there will be Ultra Combos integrated (probably known from games like “God of War”) and a “Rescue System” that will allow players on the edge to come back with some kind of blowout. For the whole story (I am too lazy to retell it here) have a look a the 1UP Feature.

Besides a new game in the franchise the rumour about a new movie (after the disaster movie with Jean-Claude) was spread month ago and they came out true. With “Street Fighter – The Legend of Chun-Li” Andrzej Bartkowiak (director of DOOM and respected for his camera work) will helm a new movie starring Chun-Li (hard to tell). Less than for the game is known what the movie will deal with (but Chun-Li) but what is known already is that the main actress will be Kristin Kreuk. Most people probably know here as Lana Lang from the Superman-Series “Smallville”. And actually as much as I think she looks lovely I cannot really think of here as Chun-Li.
But until we know more, see the first trailer and watch the final cut we can kill time by watching the hilarious Later Years of Street Fighter!

Duke Nukem Forever
Another bit news story made our Christmas more wonderful than the last 6 years. As Broussard lashed his men to finalize the first trailer since E3 2001 Duke Nukem Forever lives again. Declared dead by many, honoured with a Vaporware Lifetime Achievement Award but the Duke IS Forever.
Much could be said to this achievement, a recap of the last ten years with Duke Nukem Forever has been summed up by Shacknews so I let them do the writing and just give you the trailer.
But remember: Broussard once declared on the 3DRealms Board that the first new material will be shown if the release is within the next 12 months. So let’s hope he is right and is true to his words!

I prepared the Duke Nukem Forever Trailer from ’98 and ’01 for your pleasure after the jump!
Thanks to 1UP/Gamevideos, Gametrailers and the developers for those great resources!

“The Hero that is FOREVER!”

Games, Games, Games
You’re looking for a good game
Games, Games, Games
Get ready for my games

Games, Games, Games by Sabrina. These would probably be the lyrics if Sabrina was a nerdy gaming girl looking for some good and free games.

Some time ago I posted about the small game Nanozoa which was some Virus remake with a cool look and some addictive gameplay. Over the time I collected and found some other free games or remakes that I want to show you.

Streets of Rage – Remake
Bombergames did a good job with their remake of an old street fight classic: Streets of Rage. If you liked the original or a fan of street brawl games like Final Fight, go ahead and grab it. It’s worth every bandwith.

Additionaly there is a Streets of Rage and King of Fighters Remake by the Senile Team (probably not that senile after all). The name Beats of Rage says it all. Screenshots do look good as well as the game itself. If you wanna be a King of Fighter, a real Brawler, go to the download page and get it. It is available for several platforms depending which you like the most.

flOw
As the Playstation 3 has finally be released in Europe I want to give you flOw. It is actually no real game, though you have goal: Eat! You are flowing in the eternal juice and you are eating everything that is smaller than you. With the time you grow up and former bigger germs can be eaten. So it’s nothing exciting but still fun.
What does that have to do with the PS3 release? flOw is the thesis of Jenova Chen from 2006 and has become a game, with some more effects and motion controlled actions on the Playstation Market Place. I think it costs about 5$ and looks nice, but the original is still free. So go ahead and munch through time and spice and get bigger and bigger.

Rick Dangerous 32
Oldie but Goodie! Our all hero Rick Dangerous in a wonderful 32bit version. The much cooler Indiana Jones version which accompanied us through every plattform probably available on the market.

This plattformer is a simple but not easy somehow Jump’n'Run which demands right timing for button mashing. It’s pretty damn hard and you will die many times as you do not know what comes next and have to pay with your live(s) to see it, but it’s defintily worth the effort as Rick Dangerous is simply a hero of my childhood.
So go get it and help Rick rule the “underworld” with his Gun and Dynamite and don’t get caught by those little freakin’ natives or something else like the Nazis (as always ^^’ and in comparison with Indiana Jones needed).

Railroad Tycoon (The Original)
We all know Sid Meier and his fabulous games like Civilization. Not long ago a remake was made called Sid Meier’s Railroads. It is a nearly direct remake without much change (apart from the graphics) of his original Railroad Tycoon. The problem is they did nearly everything wrong you could do after such a long time. The controls are easy, ok, but they are too easy. Complexity was thrown overboard and everything was made to fit a childish hand, somehow. The fun that made the original is gone. And instead of doing a remake why not make a new one like Civilization 3 which was just great!
So, why this text about a game you have to buy??? You do not have to… at least not the original. With the release of the remake the original Railroad Tycoon was made available on the same Website. So go get it and do some nostalgia!

Warcraft Tower Defense (in Flash)
At novelconcepts.co.uk David Scott put on his Flash Version of the common known Warcraft Tower Defense.

Tanks to mobygames.com, the Internet and all those great gamemakers for images and games.

I don’t want to make this very long as the new year has just started and should not be filled with that much stupidity right along but what troubled me the last weeks:
I got my Wii as the countdown suggested and I am very happy. It is a good and solid console with more good games to come. The control works great as if you have never used anything else before. The Party Games like Wii Sports and Wii Play are pretty good. Much fun with some people and some beer ^^’. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is just terrific, great, best game from Nintendo ’till this day. Most other games don’t work as they should but time will tell if Nintendo can keep up some more good games, as every console has a hard game start. Red Steel should have been the new experience in the Ego-Shooter genre but it did not quite work out. Most reviews rated it pretty bad. I tested it for 2 days and I must say: The controls could be better but are easy to adopt. After some hours you will know how to fight, how to move. From then on it is a funny and cool game with intermediate graphics and a very nice Arcade-Feeling like House of the Dead with your Lightgun. A sequel is already in the work so I hope they learn from their mistakes and will make a great next-new-gen-Ego-Shooter ^^’. And as NexGen Wars shows I am not alone with my positive thinking.
Two things could be better. First the Virtual Console. Itself is just a great idea and works great but the prices for such old games like the first Sonic, the first Legend of Zelda or R-Type are with 5€ to 10€ just by far too much. And the overall internet capability of the Wii is pretty limited. Currently no game can be played with others online, not even Red Steel and things like the WiiShop are pretty slow. Everything requires reload. I hope Nintendo will improve and focus their work on these two things.

Everything else just somehow goes and goes on. University sux as always, still no very concrete diploma thesis. Life itself is the hell of a burden ^^. Some good movies have been released. Apocalypto by Mel Gibson. Maybe controversial but I pretty much liked it. It was true and strong with great stills. The newest James Bond… long story short, best Bond movie with the second best Bond actor. Now I am looking forward to Babel and Pan’s Labyrinth, two very promising movies and I will tell you about as soon as I have seen them.

For now… the end is near… the year is over… another one just started… 2007… The End!