Life Changing? Blog Changing

I used to be an avid gamer, I still am a gamer but I no longer have that urge to play every game and blog about it. That was when this blog was as its’ height and I had trillions of visitors who enjoyed it. But slowly through time my urge to play every game possible and write about has decreased. For two years in a row now I have considered retiring this blog but each time I carried on but wrote much less about games.

But as one gets older, attitudes to hobbies and goals in life changes.

Four years ago I started being unwell. Lots of pain and fatigue and other symptoms really ruining my days. Not just any old fatigue like wanting an early night but fatigue from waking – all day with arms and legs so heavy that is feels like you are carrying a huge sack on potatoes on your back. Oh and the pain – all sorts of random pain that could be there one day and not the next only to bite back the day after.

Four years struggling to get an idea from my Doctor about what the hell was going on. Test after test revealed bugger all. Until finally I saw a rheumatologist
who diagnosed Fibromyalgia – it is apparently like an arthritis of the muscles but without the degeneration of joints. Some think it is an imaginary disease and poo poo the idea, others know it is real through long term research. Lets face it, 30 years ago Doctors thought Multiple Schlerosis was imaginary and look where they are now through research. The World Health Organisation recognises it as a real disease as does research and I know it is real and to the naysayers I will just say think yourself lucky it is not you.

Of course while there is no test for it, there is also no cure. It is not a terminal disease that will kill me but it impacts my life every day with some form of disability. The funny thing is every day is different, every hour is different and sometimes even every minute. Somebody said to me the other day “why are you suddenly limping?” in an accusary way - I was not limping a minute before. But that is the nature of the beast – it randomly hurts at any time, any moment.

You may be asking yourself why I am writing about this on a gaming blog? Well the days of my gaming blog are over. I have decided that Sprites & Bites will no longer be a gaming only blog but a blog for absolutely anything I like, whether it be world news, commenting of every day things or just having a moan about my daily symptoms, I don’t care now. This blog is mine and I dictate what goes into it.

If my long term readers do not like this then I am sorry, but it has to be this way to try and keep this blog alive. It cannot run itself when I have no interest in the content I am posting.

My life has changed and so will this blog.

Disc Drivin

Here I interview iphone game developer Michael Bean from Pixelocity Software who created the excellent Disc Drivin’ game for iPhone and iPad.

Beck: Who are you, where are you and what do you do?

[Michael] – We are Pixelocity Software (www.pixelocitysoftware.com), a Texas based independent game company started by my brother Tommy and myself [Michael Bean]. We’ve been in the game industry since the late 90s, working mostly on large PC and console games like Age of Empires and Halo Wars. Having worked on really big projects for a long time, we had a growing desire to make smaller games and the emergence of the iPhone presented a great opportunity. So we started Pixelocity in 2010 and got straight to work on our first title, Disc Drivin’.

Beck: I love Disc Drivin, what on earth gave you the idea for the game?

[Michael] – Disc Drivin’ has several inspirations. First, there’s a physical board game called Pitchcar with a similar theme of sliding discs around a track that is a ton of fun with a lot of people. We’re also huge fans of the Mario Kart series, so we really wanted to incorporate a lot of obstacles and powers to keep the racing exciting. And finally, the inspiration for making it turn-based came from friends and former coworkers of ours at Ensemble Studios, who went on to make Words with Friends. Tie those together with some creativity and polish and you have Disc Drivin’!

Beck: Are you working on versions for other platforms like Android or Windows 7 phone?

[Michael] – We aren’t working on Disc Drivin’ for other platforms at this point. We would rather concentrate on updates for iOS and on making new games rather than porting to other platforms right now.

Beck: Lots of tracks to play already but are there plans for new tracks or maybe even a mirror option to flip over the current tracks?

[Michael] – Yes, there are plans for new tracks. We’re working on an update now that will have new tracks plus a few other surprises hopefully.

Beck: Sometimes I film with my phone my crazy or weird shots to YouTube for others to laugh or cry at. What would be great is an option to upload a previous shot to YouTube. Would this be hard to implement?

[Michael] – It’s not impossible to implement. We actually started on that feature when we first released the game and got it partially working, but had to shelve it for higher priorities. It would be cool to revisit if it bubbles up on the wishlist.

Beck: Do you have any other new games in the pipeline?

[Michael] – We’ve started several prototypes and have a massive list of games we want to try making, but we don’t have anything far enough along to talk about yet.

Beck: I have a personal statistic of 866 gold medals, 544 silver medals and 17 bronze medals. Are you as good as me?

[Michael] – No, I am not nearly as good as you. But you knew that and just wanted me to admit it in print. It’s incredibly common in the game industry that developers are “the best” at their own game for a brief few weeks after first release.

Check out these two Videos of my favourite shots by me. The first is a weird shot that went wrong, the second is just a good shot.

Weird shot at Disc Drivin

Disc drivin jumping the big gap

Free TV on iPad

Watch TV for Free on your iPad

Now that all the big players have released TV catchup service apps for the iPad it is time for me to take a look at them all and give you a rundown of the best. All the apps are free and work via wifi internet connection. Apps all tested on an iPad 2 with an 8mb internet connection. All apps work with original iPad. Your internet connection may vary.

ITV Player

ITV Player has a nice black, blue and white design with sections of Most Watched, Don’t Miss and channels ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. Programmes are available for up to only 7 days after airing. Also offers an A-Z listing of shows and a search function. The quality of the TV stream is not the best and occasionally you may get buffering problems and also the picture sometimes is not as clear as it can be and can appear pixelated and blurry. Some shows have a parental guidance on them but there appears to be no parental lock. 7/10

4 OD Catchup

This app is the offering from Channel 4. It has an easy on the eye blue design and the app opens with a selection of recommended programmes to watch from channel 4. E4 and More 4. It offers an excellent 30 day viewing window so you are not rushed to watch a show. The quality of the stream is excellent and I experienced no issues with the app. This app has an optional parental lock with use of a pin number if you wish to lock your childs viewing. 9/10

Demand 5

Channel 5’s offering started out as a test app for viewing Big Brother and has now become a fully fledged catchup app. It covers an excellent 30 days of viewing shows with a simple purple and grey navigation which like the others easy to use. The app is sponsored by Currys PC world with a small banner in the app, there is also a PC world advert prior to some shows viewing but really it is not intrusive at all. It also has some older shows broadcast months ago. The app description says shows are viewable for 30 days but I found some shows were viewable for up to a year. Channel 5 does not have a lot of content which is why I think it has some back episodes of shows to bulk it out a bit. Good quality internet stream 8/10

BBC iPlayer

The original and best of the catchup services, the BBC iPlayer by its very nature of TV and Radio has the most content of all apps. It covers catchup programmes from BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC News and BBC Parliament plus all of the available digital BBC radio stations. Internet streams are of excellent quality and the app has a nice design in both portrait and landscape modes with channel listings and a search function. Oddly, and unlike the desktop version it does not appear to have a parental lock but it does have a favourites function to add a series so a new episode will be automatically listed in the favourites section. Excellent stream, best content but no parental lock, also shows generally are available for only up to 7 days which is a bit disappointing 9/10

Poker Pals iOS

Chillingo recently released Poker Pals HD for iPhone and iPad. This is a great little take on a board game mixed with poker. Some reviews have likened it to a hybrid between Poker and Scrabble, this is true to an extent but of course you do not play words, you play Poker hands to gain points on the game board.

Poker Pals supports AI two player, local pass and play but ultimately online multiplayer with a friend or a random person. There seems to be no issues with online and it generally works very well. Myself and a few friends had an issue with the game not notifying on iOS5 but I found the fix for this was to go the the device settings – settings ->notifications -> Pals HD – and change the alert type from a banner to alert box.

Sadly, the game is missing online chat which is a great shame, many good iOS board games have online chat now and it is something that should be added to give a better feel of a social game.

Now onto the real issue I have. After having purchased the game for iPad, I found it was quite addicted so purchased it for iPhone too. The problem is that the second device will not accept my username and gives an error that username is already taken – yes it has been taken, by me!! But it seems that I cannot purchase it for two devices and play it with the same username. This is far from the usual behaviour for iOS games and it is something Chillingo must fix as soon as possible, it seems when they made this fun game they forgot that some people may have multiple devices. I am sure they will fix it, but in the meantime do not buy it again for a second device.

So all in all, a fun game, very addictive but has a few issues and tweaks that they need to resolve. I would like to reiterate though apart from the issue above and the tweaks I would like added, I have found no problems with the gameplay itself. Oh and as a BTW, there is an achievement for beating Difficult Davey, I did it after about 10 tries but I swear he cheats. And speaking of achievements, there seems to be a bit of a bug – I magically unlocked a load of achievements I never actually earned!

Kickin Mamma HD

Kickin Mamma HD was released on the iPad a few days ago and instantly to me it looked like a Peggle clone. This is a good thing as I loved Peggle. But to my surprise, it is actually better than Peggle in my opinion. Rather than having to get all the pegs like in Peggle, you have to get a set number of gems scattered around the pegs. During the game you are given powerups and extras like fireball to be able to break through frozen pegs so there is a little added variety.

The game is not huge by means of time of completion but there is some replay value to go back and get the gems you missed and aim for gold medals and there is a promise of more levels to come in a future update. I recommend this game as a short blast of fun which you may prove difficult to put down. At the moment it is also only £1.49 in the AppStore too, so grab it while it is cheap. Also available for iPhone.

From iPad to iPad 2

I absolutely adore my ipad. It gets used every day without fail but due to having some problems with my hands I do struggle playing games on it for longer periods of time. I did manage to play through the whole of Harry Potter lego on the ipad over a few months and it is an enjoyable game but one thing which made it easier is in that game you can move the thumbsticks to a position best suited to your hands. This was a godsend because also having quite small hands I found the position of some thumbsticks in some games quite impossible to play. Take for example Aralon. I really want to be able to play that game but on an ipad the thumbsticks are in a fixed position and it is quite uncomfortable on my small, achy hands.

This led me to consider maybe getting an ipad 2. With its slimmer and lighter body, it might prove better for my needs. I had been mulling it over for a few months and every time was talked out of it by various people as I would not gain much from upgrading to a 2 and it would be a waste of money. But really how much money can you put on comfort? I’m not saying the ipad is uncomfortable for all, but it is for me sometimes.

So anyway on Thursday I decided to take the plunge and buy one. Managed to find one in Comet who delivered on Saturday. All I can really say is that playing games now for longer periods definitely is MUCH more comfortable, so much that I do not regret getting it for one moment. Not only is it thinner and lighter, but the more rounded edge around the back of the case sits much more comfortably in the palms of the hands and it feels more natural. So forget the addition of cameras, faster processor and the colour white, the biggest draw really is how well the ipad sits in your hands. If you do find it a tad uncomfortable playing on the ipad then do consider an ipad 2 because the minor changes in design and weight really do make a difference.

Hidden Object Fun

I have a little secret shame which I am now to air to the world. I have developed an addiction to hidden object games. These are the games where you are tasked with finding a series of objects within a cluttered scene. Sounds boring, yes it is in a way but oh so quite compelling and I have found that the hours can easily pass away and not notice it is very late and sleep should be forthcoming.

There are many variations in the hidden object game genre, some are simply find a list of objects and complete a scene, but the better ones have a proper story attached to them and brain exploding puzzles to really give your mind some exercise. Some of the puzzles may be easy and others are so evil you may find yourself looking for help online. Hidden object games are always suitable for all ages but some of the ones with hard puzzles in may naturally be too difficult for younger children. They are also very accessible and can be found on all formats from mobile phones to ipads and PCs and there are even a few on the gaming consoles. And they are great to play if you have only a few minutes or many hours.

Here is a little rundown of my favourite hidden object games on iphone or ipad, which with the touch screens are perfect for hidden objects. Be wary when choosing though, some are really short about an hour or so long and others are 4-5 hours or more. The selection below are all fairly lengthy games except for Nick Chase Detective HD which I felt was a great story anyway so deserved to be on the list.

Antrim Escape 2 HD

Awakening: The Dreamless Castle

Awakening: Moonfell Wood

Drawn: The Painted Tower

Flux Family Secrets

Mushroom Age

Nick Chase A Detective Story HD

Treasure Seekers 1

Treasure Seekers 2

Most of the games are of a decent length and took me at least 4 hours to
finish. They also have a good mix of hidden object finding and brain bending
puzzles to vary the action. Antrim Escape 2 is extremely hard so if you are
new to these games this one is best avoided but may I suggest starting with
Flux Family Secrets, it is not too easy but has a good balance between not
too difficult and giving your brain cells some action.

sprites & bites

Gaming, iPads and a few biscuits on the side…