Well, I've just finished doing a few things. Finishing the 6th HP book and ending quite depressed, I decided to try out this SNES underdog I read about in a site: Magical Pop'n. A platform game made in 1995 by Polestar (??) and distributed by Pack-in-Video (??), it obviously didnt' make much impact at all, not even coming here to Europe.

The game is surprisingly good, though. And quite fun to play, if I may add. It's the closest thing to Sonic I've seen on the SNES, actually. Fast gameplay, nice graphics (with that extra touch of kawainess on the lead character, a little girl) , and OK music. Well, the digitized voices COULD use some help - poor seiyuu was prolly just picked off the street and has as much acting talent as me in a good day (that is, nothing at all). It's sad to hear such a dull "Yatta!".

But the "Kya!" when you duck a little too long is still prime material. The girl has potential, after all.

The game's got 7 stages: first one, you get used to the game; next 5 ones, you pick up one spell every stage; and then the last one, with the final boss (and 5 mini-bosses, ugh). The fact that there's mini-bosses shows the attention to detail these guys had. Spells have two modes: normal mode, with normal strength, required stars and looks; and BIG mode, which is just plain flashy and wasteful. xD

Gameplay, as I said before, is pretty fast, and not that linear, actually.

I really recommend this game. I'll give it an 8 out of 10. Now, as usual, screenshot time!



This is the.. hmm.. 3rd stage. You can see there's no Japanese involved in the gameplay itself. xD

There's the number of tries, the energy bar (which you can expand by gaining hearts, a la Zelda), the list of spells you can use along with their cost, and the number of stars you've got to spend. Oh yes... see those little heads below the life counter? Get three of them and you get an extra life.




Ugh... this is Blogger's fault. It's screwing the order of the pictures. Anyhow, see that stone? That was what you were supposed to get back. This is part of the ending. What's she saying? Well, it's quite simple:

Princess: Yatta!







Going into a new stage. This is the 4th one, the ice one. Funnily, you actually don't get the ice spell but the _fire_ spell. Watch out for those penguins. Those have bazookas. Really.










Part of the ending as well. After beating the evil sorceror king, the princess comes back just to make hell out of her gramps' life. I hope she'll get into his old skull that pointy hats with stars and PINK clothes won't get him anything.

I wonder if he's really his gramps or he's just some old man?

"And with the spells she learnt, she pulled pranks on everyone all the time".



The bad guy, looking... quite bad. In the bad sense of the word.

Man, that was a bad joke.

... what?

Evil Sorceror King: "Guoooh... H-How can this be....?"

Kudos for the kid's victory sign.



Blogger blasting its way through my carefully ordered snapshots. This is right before you fight the guy from before.

After you beat him (which is EASY if you're fast, and I've always played fast), you'll fight the real boss, a big ugly thing which is also really easy to beat.

Bosses in this game are Megaman-ish: keep an eye out for what they do, act along and it's a piece of cake.

Woof?

Omae wa dochira anime no VILLAIN desu ka?
[koyasunomiko.com]

Well, that was the coincidence of the year, I think. XDD Got Yuki on one hand and Akito on the other. Somebody should tell the quiz author blue doesn't mix well with red.

OpenGL fun

I finished the (short) chapter on pixmaps and bitmaps (OpenGL ones; not to be confused with regular bitmaps... which are pixmaps). Basically, a pixmap is a picture, as we know it: you have the colors stored somewhere else, pixel by pixel, be it in color-index mode (just indices from a palette) or in true color mode (with the color components). The bitmap is _literally_ a bitmap: just a bunch of 0s and 1s, unlike the usual concept, which in OpenGL's terminology would be a pixmap.

There was a bit of a mess with this chapter as the book relies on DirectX and not SDL, and thus, some things don't work as is. Image loading is an example. I refrained from using those quick-and-dirty loading functions the book offered. Besides, it was just BMPs and TGAs, formats I'm not too fond of (I prefer PNG for non-lossy and JPG for lossy pictures).

Bitmaps just specify what pixels are colored with the current color and which aren't. Pretty boring, and I don't see much the use of them. Though working with pixmaps is interesting. Combined with the SDL_image library, you can load just out of the box GIF, JPG, PNG, TGA, BMP and XPM formats. Being careful with the format, you can work directly with the pixel data. But there's a few slight catches:

- Before drawing, you have to set the raster position to where you want your picture. This is modified by the modelview and projection matrices, so either use an orthogonal projection matrix (that way you can use direct on-screen coordinates) or just be careful with your perspective projection matrix.

Good thing about being modified by the modelview matrix: you can do stuff like rotating the starting point of the picture (I can already imagine this being used in Secret of Mana-ish circular menus). No, you can't rotate pictures straight away, but you can zoom/flip them.

Oh yes, and what's more important: with orthogonal matrices, (0,0) is the lower-left corner of the screen. With perspective matrices, (0,0) is the _center_ of the screen.

- Another note: the x86 architecture (which is what Intel, AMD and probably Cyrix use in their chips) is little-endian. What does this mean? Well, it means that, actually, colors aren't stored in the typical Red-Green-Blue-Alpha fashion, but in the Blue-Green-Red-Alpha one. It's exactly the other way around. If you had a Mac, it might be different. Or a machine with a Motorola chip, which are known for being big-endian. AFAIK, RISC chips are as well. Just about everybody except the x86 architecture xDD. Correct me if I'm wrong.

- SDL_DisplayFormat: you have to be careful with the conversion and give the right options to OpenGL. Of course, I've only done a small demo and it'd be overkill, but, you know...

- Pixels are stored in reverse order in SDL's native SDL_Surface structure. Thus, you have to flip the image horizontally and vertically. This is easy thanks to the glPixelZoom function.

When all is conveniently prepared (an orthogonal projection, and the image loaded with IMG_Load) it all boils down to:

glPixelZoom(-1.0f,-1.0f);
glDrawPixels(img2->w,img2->h,GL_BGRA,GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE,img2->pixels);

Oh yes: keep in mind SDL_DisplayFormatAlpha is to be used instead of the normal SDL_DisplayFormat if your picture has an alpha channel (like GIFs or PNGs do). Though PNGs offer pixel-by-pixel alpha values and GIFs just use a transparent color. SDL is bad with pixel-by-pixel alpha right now, though. People usually have to write a replacement and do some hacking around.

Mata jikai! (See you next time!)
~Antonio

Phoebe, Junior

I thought I would publish a relatively sensible post for a change. This is the book I'm reading at the moment - as some of you know I'm working on a doctoral thesis on Mrs Oliphant, a Scottish Victorian author (novelist, journalist and biographer). I have recently started a website on her, which is still not that much to see, but will (eventually) be of some use to people wishing to know further about her. Hopefully.
I would certainly recommend her to anyone fond of Victorian domestic fiction. When I am writing a plot summary for the website I am always surprised at how trite every event in the novel sounds when summarizing, but it is hard to convey the way the author makes you relate to her compelling tale of the everyday, the commonplace: history as it is actually experienced by us as individuals. Whatever my favourite work of hers up til now might be, none I've read so far has failed to keep me entranced until the very last page. I like that typical voice of hers - the wise, keen eyed woman, no rebel maybe, but still as intelligent, hard-working and admirable as the most radical of feminists. Yes, I have just voiced the main argument yielded when it comes to neglect her - she wrote articles against the feminism of her times, she was an antifeminist, they say, "Eve's renegade" as a very fine academic text on the subject phrases it. As she died and the century turned, literary mores and values were changing, and she became the prolific, chattering old woman who wrote for money, to maintain her family. An object of pity rather than admiration. I suppose that as the (XXth) century advanced critics increasingly relied on previous critics' judgements of her output, rather than at least test the water by reading the original texts (she was very prolific - I know that feels scary to the incipient Oliphant reader!). In the end, a very talented author is constantly dismissed, discarded from your average set of Victorian literary champions just because she has been ever so frequently quoted out of context.
In the end, I have got myself carried and keep on waffling on why she should have not been neglected and why we should be wary of which contemporary prejudices we carry with us as readers and interpreters of texts belonging to our relatively immediate past (exactly, as it is the section of the past we most strongly react against, in that dangerous combination of familiarity and the disowning instinct of the younger generation). So happy this is just a blog and waffling is what I am supposed to do in here!
In any case, this book is the last of her series called Carlingford Chronicles, which portrays the social milieu of a country village in England (quite in the line of Trollope's Barchester Chronicles, dear Mrs. O. had always an eye for potential bestselling formulas!). The main character, Phoebe Beecham, is a very compelling female character, however clever and scheming she might be, because she often means well, plus she happens to be succesful in everything she undertakes. In spite of the gender limitations we are all very aware of when discussing the XIXth century, in that it is always a popular (and necessary, I should say) subject of debate, I quite like these women that did not automatically become invalids and spent the rest of their lives moaning about their meaningless, mean, narrow existence. Well, they did have reasons to complain (many of them do still exist, however hidden and disguised - we are, after all, in the times of political correctness), but how good or even accurate is it to imagine a past full of either bloodless conformists or wrathful rebels? Were all women at either pole of the spectrum? I rather doubt it, and like to see this sort of woman, commonplace, and yet wilful and resourceful, and not that selfless, as a good sample of what the average Victorian middle-class woman would have been (romantic, me?!).
I only regret Phoebe is to marry that oaf of a man Clarence Copperhead. I know he represents a fantastic chance - a Career, as she calls marriage, she will put him in Parliament and keep him there. But he is still is a very pale and irritating sort of character. Mind you, I don't think I would have liked righteous, and formidably stiff Reginald May either. I still find Clarence's duets with Phoebe (him at the violin, her at the piano) rather amusing - the poor woman struggling to get him through the piece with some success, being herself a rather proficient musician. At least Oliphant does never yield to making her men the very personification of female fantasies - say passionate Rochester-like characters or soppy, goody-goody (and suitably powerless) clergymen. They are just humans (though often clergymen - not that many genteel professions for the sensible middle class man, were there?), for better or worse, only with a fainter contact with everyday reality (the commonplace, the everyday, was part of the private sphere, that is, woman's lot in life) than many women.
Yes, I am enjoying the book. A lot. The Oliphant website, btw, is: The Margaret Oliphant site

Fruits Basket

Copycat in here, I have also taken that Fruits Basket test. I am positively puzzled - I have considered the questions at length and all, and have given what I sort was closest to me, but I don't see how the result applies to me. Not that I don't like the characters, but I still have to see the hidden similarities.
Anyway, here it goes...

Omae wa dochira juunishi no MEMBAA desu ka?
[koyasunomiko.com]

If I had to choose, I like Momiji best - noisy and cheerful. Well, I am a bit noisy as well, I suppose. Well, I can't help having this much volume in my voice, you know!
And they also had a "Which anime villain are you" quiz. The questions were rather good (esp. for this sort of quiz) but the range of baddies wasn't that huge (just five), and the one I got I haven't heard of so far (no, I haven't watched Flame of Recca, sooorry). I still think the definition is quite right for me, were I to become a baddie, that is.

Omae wa dochira anime no VILLAIN desu ka?
[koyasunomiko.com]

So far so good, let's see which baddie the little brother makes...

Hmm, I've entered the same quiz my sis was pointed to. Seems I am a Gryffindor:



be sorted @ nimbo.net

Oh, and I've went through a Furuba (Fruits Basket) quiz as well. I'd like Ayame, though I know I won't get him, I'm quite different.

Omae wa dochira juunishi no MEMBAA desu ka?
[koyasunomiko.com]

Not too bad. Though the quiz wasn't all that obvious. The title of the quiz, obviously, is "What member of the Juunishi (the twelve animals from the Chinese Zodiac) are you?". Don't know why they used 'omae'. Kinda rude, but oh well.

I'm not arrogant, though. I think.

Long time no see - sillyness united

I have neglected the journal so, honest, shame on me a thousand times! I think I might as well write a couple of posts and update my extensive fandom (!!!) on my very eventful life - that is, I'll write a bit on what I'm reading and listening to. I should also go and get me a nice range of emoticons to use in the blog, as I don't seem to feel completely satisfied with the fullness of my meaning unless I'm using them wee silly bits. Shame on me as well, I know...
My dear friend Carmen has sent me a sorting hat quiz, and I, being the quiz freak I am, went and did it of course. I can't help it, give me a quiz, however silly and I must get through it. From an optimistic perspective, call it a zest for self-knowledge, ahem.
And I have been sorted into...



Let there be celebrations all over the land! (Yep, I know, how silly can one get). Well, I suppose I sort of agree. I guess my first thought would have been Gryffindor, but, get a grip, I'm usually better at brain work, plus, though not particularly cowardly, I'm not exactly in a rush to get into danger (as most Gryffindors in the book seem but too pleased to be). Then, most of the book's favourite characters (say the wonder trio, or the Weasley twins *aren't they fantastic? don't you just love their "Hogwarts Farewell" in Order of Phoenix?*).
Potter related as well, I have been playing to the PC game for the third film. Very enjoyable, and there are more wizarding cards than ever! There are plenty of lovely details, as well, and 3D be blessed, there is such a feeling of reality. I am at present stuck (not that much time to play, and I'm not the best player in the kingdom, after all) at the scene where they need to rescue Ron from Sirius Black. I just hate those skeletons throwing bones at you - they always get me in the end. I have also given the Quidditch World Cup a try, but it needs a skillful use of both hands, and there is no way I can do that. I think contemporary gaming should take better account of people with disabilities - even mine that is ever so small as a lack of skill and strength in my left side makes playing with a thousand controls a nightmare at times (oh those console controllers!!). Whatever.
Just hardly 11 days for the 6th book! I'm getting it a bit later - I'll keep my fingers crossed the book won't be retained in the post too long. I just can't wait!

Uggggh.

I've always been horrible in board games. But I didn't know I was THAT bad. That needs fixing, of course. I've got an interest in Go, it's both simple and very challenging. And requires far more concentration than the one I usually have in board games.

I've been beaten ehh... 7 times today. 5 by the comp, 2 by humans. Yes, the comp was at the lowest setting possible. Oh, I won once. Against the comp.

Funny though how many Japanese terms exist in the game, though it also has Chinese origins. There's the komi (small margin given to the white player for being always last), the atari (situation where a piece can be removed by just one enemy piece), double ataris, and so on. And there's moves like the ladder (which I've fell to, though I knew it), or the cage (that one I have to know more about), snapback attacks and so on.

Oh well. On another note, some Barbara girl just joined my party after recovering the Ra Mirror from the Moon Mirror Tower (with three nasty Poison Zombies guarding the entrance, who, surprisingly enough, can use poison attacks to great effect). The Leylock king is not king, but queen, according to the mirror. After the usual explanation, we're off to Mudoh's castle. Still there.

Hmm.. and my Jap lessons start tomorrow again after a month of "hiatus". Bye bye, my dear 30€... I will miss you dearly. :cry: Oh well, gotta spend my money on something, I think. xD

Ah, I'm reading now and then a manga I got from a friend: "Female Public Prosecutor Leona". Yes, the 'Female' part is there. It's "Onna Kenji Reona", after all. Still haven't finished the first case, though I'm near to doing it. Uggh, so many kanji... thanks to Remembering the Kanji, I know what the _kanji_ mean, but not what the compound means or how it's said. Regardless, it's quite an advantage, combined with Wakan, RtK and so on.

It's about a perfectionist mother who drowned her 1 1/2 year old son in the bad due to neurosis, then attempted suicide. Seems it ran in her family (her brother was in the hospital being treated from the same thing). It's not pretty, I know, xD. Though the vocab on police/law related things IS handy. Like detective, lawyer, public prosecutor (duh), Law (as a discipline), and the like.

And what else? There's the OpenGL book (going through Blending now), the Knuth book (uggggh... it's -too- difficult, but I'm not going to be taught any more maths, so I might have to tackle this myself), my "intergalactic empire" (-snicker- it's still just one planet) on OGame... btw, it's fun to pirate planets from people with NO defenses. How careless can they be? And they're just about my same score. Tsk tsk.

Kore ijou. (That will be all for today)
~Antonio