Where's Sonic Now? photos

Here are a bunch of photos I took of a book called Where's Sonic Now?, basically a Sonic the Hedgehog version of Where's Wally, and sequel to a previous book called Where's Sonic?. I took them to send into popular Sega blog, UK:RESISTANCE and they never got used, but I found them on my webspace today and thought I'd share them. Here's the directory: http://jephso.spheresofchaos.co.uk/sonic/. And here's a sample:

I like the style of these. If I was to scan them properly they'd make nice desktop wallpaper.

Chiptune Alliance Tour 2008

Last night, my band, Spheres of Chaos played at the Sheffield date of the Chiptune Alliance Tour 2008, and it was so much fun, probably the best gig we've played thus far as a band. The other artists on the bill were Firebrand Boy, syphus, Random and Sabrepulse, all of whom were top guys.

We had loads of people turn up, and it was just great to see so many quality chiptune acts in one place. Everyone was so into the music and there was such a great vibe going on. Things are really taking off with VGM and chiptune in the UK, changing from something that was just a load of people on the internet into awesome events like this. There were a couple of people filming the whole thing too, with one guy planning to put a documentary of the tour together, so I'm gonna try and put some video footage up in the Gamewave Podcast feed at some point.

Anamanaguchi were meant to be playing on the night too, but they ended up getting deported again! I hear their new album's nearly ready for release though, which should be very cool.

Again, I've uploaded some photos of the night (mainly SoC) up onto Facebook.

My reaction to Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

I bought the DVD ages ago, but the other night I got round to watching Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. This one is different to the live-action Street Fighter film released in the same year (1994), which I haven't seen, but I'm informed the animated film is much better. I was actually hoping for the film to be viewable in Japanese for a bit of language practice, but there was no option for that, so I watched it in English.

The movie centres around the characters of Ken and Ryu, but more so Ryu, who is wandering the globe in search of worthy opponents to spar with. However, Ryu is being trailed by the Shadowlaw, a crime organisation run by Bison, who wants to capture Ryu and turn him into a Shadowlaw henchman. The storyline's pretty predictable overall, but all the other main characters from the games make an appearance, leading to some interesting fight scenes. Some characters play larger roles than others though - I was disappointed to see that my childhood character of choice, Dhalsim was hardly involved in the film at all.

The animation quality varied throughout, but the film looked fairly good for the most part. And the soundtrack was interesting, composed mainly of hard rock/grunge type stuff, some of the tracks being supplied by bands such as Korn and Alice in Chains - I guess that's what was in fashion at the time. I was also surprised to hear the DVD menu audio was all songs by The Mad Capsule Markets.

I get the impression this was a pretty big film when it was originally released, probably more so in Japan than in the West. In fact, some of the new characters and storylines from the film eventually made their way into the Street Fighter games, and I'd recommend this film for anyone who's a fan of the games. It's nothing amazing, and a lot like most other anime action films, but it's still enjoyable to see all the characters from the games duking it out and stuff.

I really wanna play some Street Fighter II now actually - hado-ken!

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

I recently watched a really great documentary called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. I heard about the film through a podcast I listen to, and the hosts agreed that it was one of the best films made last year so I decided to check it out.

Set within the world of competitive gaming, the documentary follows two players of Donkey Kong, Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. Mitchell is recognised as one of the best competitive gamers of all time, and when the film begins he holds the world record at Donkey Kong. Wiebe is a relative newcomer to the scene, but quickly becomes well-known through his attempts to break Mitchell's record.

I won't spoil the movie, but it's a thoroughly interesting watch as you get to see inside the politics of competitive gaming and all the personalities involved. And all this competition is set against the day-to-day lives of Wiebe and Mitchell, school teacher and restaurant chain owner respectively. It's such a great story that it's often hard to believe it's real life, and I thoroughly recommend the film if you're into video games at all.

Also, the DVD contains a few chiptunes from some artists that I play on my podcast, as well as a fun little animation by Gabe Swarr, who I know is a listener of the podcast too.

I return!

I must apologise for the lack of updates over the past two weeks. The reason for this is that my PC broke, and I've only just got it working again. There was a problem with the power button which meant I couldn't turn the PC on at all, and while it only needed a new wire, getting it fixed became more complicated than that.

First I contacted Ebuyer whom I bought the case from just under a year ago, and they told me to get in touch with Asus, the manufacturer. So I emailed Asus and they said to go back to Ebuyer. Ebuyer then said they'd send me a spare part, but when they couldn't find one said I needed to send the case in for repair. Once they got hold of it they said the problem couldn't be fixed and that they'd send me a new case, but I'd sent my PC in with all the other components still inside - processor, disk drive etc. So they sent me back a new case and all my others parts in another box. But they sent them to my old house where I'd originally ordered the case from a year ago, not my current address! Luckily we kind of know the people who live in our old house, so we went round today and picked up the packages, and I've just re-fitted everything back inside, and it all seems to be working fine. I've never built a PC on my own before (I had someone help me last time), but I just followed the instructions that came with the case, and there've been no fires or explosions yet.

To be fair, Ebuyer were really good about the whole incident actually though. I found it very easy to get through to a human when I phoned them up, they kept me updated about everything, they've replaced the case free of charge and they even wrapped up my components in anti-static packaging when they sent them back.

But get this: OK, so it's bad enough not having a PC for a couple of weeks, but guess what - my phone broke! Again! I'm sure I have some sort of electronics curse - everything just keeps breaking, which has left me annoyed, bored and cut off from the outside world.

I have done a few cool things recently though. I've been reading a fair bit and playing lots of GameCube, and my band went into a recording studio on Wednesday. It was the first time we've done that, as we normally just record everything ourselves, but we all really enjoyed the experience, and got loads done. We recorded some stuff for an upcoming compilation we're going to be part of, and it was a lot less stressful than recording ourselves, and higher sound quality too.

Fortunately, I do now have a phone which my parents confiscated from my sister while I wait for mine to get repaired (this time by Dial-a-Phone). But don't tell her I have her phone - she's not supposed to know.

I'm really glad my PC's working again though, and I've got a lot to catch up on - two weeks is a long time on the internet.

Also, this is my 150th post - cool!

Finished!

Wow. Exams are over! It still hasn't sunk in yet and I'm finding it hard to comprehend having free time without feeling like I should be working. It's such a nice feeling after a really hard year.

My last exam was yesterday and it was on Japanese language. I found it quite tough, and don't think I did too well really, but I should have passed, which means I can still go to Japan in September.

And today my band started practising some Sonic the Hedgehog covers today for a Sega compilation we're taking part in - we're doing Spring Yard Zone from StH 1 and Chemical Plant Zone from StH 2. They're both really interesting tunes and sounded pretty cool when we played them. Although it's impossible for a few different reasons to replicate the originals perfectly, we're trying to be as accurate as possible, and I'm looking forward to recording them.

GameCube

I've been wanting a GameCube for a while now, and as I'll soon have loads of spare time for playing games, I bought one yesterday. Me and my brother had a 'Cube back when they were current-gen, and I think it's a great system, mainly because of some really great games.

This one I bought was only £20, boxed, from CeX in town, which is quite good I think. I did buy one yesterday, but when I got it home I found out that it was in really bad condition, there was no power supply and the controller was an Xbox third party one! So I went back to CeX today and swapped it for the 'Platinum' edition of the console, and everything's there and in good condition.

For games, I've bought both Sonic Mega Collection and Gems Collection, which means I can play just about every old-school Sonic game, including some of the more obscure and rare ones, such as Sonic CD, which I've heard great things about. I also have a copy of F-Zero GX, which I love, and of course, I'll be getting Super Smash Bros. Melee - I still have my old save file on a memory card somewhere. I want Pikmin 2 too, but that's quite hard to find for a decent price.

I wanna start playing now, but I still have one exam left to revise for... Might just set it up tonight and have a quick blast.

The Top Ten Reasons Gaming Was Better in the Early ‘90s

Andrew Sztein makes a lot of good points in his article The Top Ten Reasons Gaming Was Better in the Early ‘90s. I agree with just about everything he says, especially points #8, #3 and #1.

Games just seem so complicated and serious these days, while back then it was all much simpler and felt more like fun. I've often had to explain to my younger brother why playing the NES and Mega Drive back in the day was way better than playing Gears of War on his fancy Xbox 360. But he just doesn't get it.

Or maybe we all just end up enjoying whatever it is we do while we're kids, and we'll always like and be nostalgic for that. Either way, give me some old school Sonic and Mario over Halo any day.

Pokémon Gold came in the post

After sending off my Pokémon Gold cart to Nintendo to get a new battery it came back in the post today. I had to wait more than the three weeks it was meant to take, but I got one of those plastic game cases with it, which is cool. And it's not like I have time to play games at the moment anyway. But only three more weeks and a couple of exams now, and then it's the summer holidays!

A new phone

Quite unexpectedly, I now have a new mobile phone - my dad said I could have my brother's, after he kept using more minutes or texts than he was allowed! It's a Nokia 6300 - a nice upgrade from my 3220, which was starting to look a bit worse for wear. I realised I've had that one for 3 years now, as I got in in a promotion for Star Wars Episode III back in 2005.

But this new one is nice and shiny, has a big, clear display and a fairly good camera function, which means I'll probably hold off buying a digital camera for the moment.

I don't usually care too much about mobile phones, but this one is pretty cool, and it's a Nokia again, which is good. Plus, it's on a contract which my dad is paying for, so I won't have to buy any credit myself - all in all, a good deal! I'm just in that annoying transition phase between phones at the moment.

I sent off my Pokémon Gold cart to get a new battery today. After I'd phoned them up, I had to wait for Nintendo (or CoDEStorm, who deal with their customer service in the UK) to send me a reference sheet thing through the post, which you then attach to the front of your envelope and send back. It just has your case number and stuff on, but grants you free postage, which is nice.

Pokémon Gold problems

The other day I finally got round to making a start on Pokémon Gold, which I bought a few weeks ago for my GBA SP. I played for about an hour and then saved my game, but the next day when I turned the game on there was no option to continue from where I'd finished. I tried starting another game and saving, but when I turned on and off the save file was lost again.

I figured that the save battery inside the cart must have died. I remember my friend mentioning he'd lost the ability to save on his copy of Gold recently too, and after doing a bit of research this seems to be a universal problem with all Gold and Silver carts. Released in Europe in April 2001, I'd forgotten just how old these games are, and it seems that the save batteries all died around 2006. I believe this relatively short life span is due to the use of an oscillator which controls the in-game clock, using up battery power. So whilst versions of Pokémon Red and Blue were released before Gold and Silver, the battery has lasted longer because of the absence of an in-game clock (although the batteries in Red and Blue will go eventually - probably sometime soon, if not already).

But I wasn't about to give up on playing Pokémon Gold, and I found a really useful message board thread which details how to replace the battery yourself. The batteries they recommend are fairly expensive though, so I wondered if Nintendo could replace the battery for me instead.

Repairs for GBC games aren't mentioned on the Nintendo UK website, but I phoned up and found out that it would cost £15 to replace the battery, which is kinda expensive, but not too bad. The guy was quite nice about the whole thing, and understood the problem. I think it's good that they do provide this service, but maybe Nintendo should have foreseen the whole problem and done something about it, as 5 or 6 years isn't a very long life-span for a game as awesome as Pokémon Gold. It's also a shame for people who've built up a good collection of Pokémon to lose everything, although there are a couple of ways around this. You could either transfer all your monsters to a game such as Pokémon Colosseum, or it should also be possible to replace a save battery whilst the cart is hooked up to an external power supply, so as not to lose the save data, but that could be quite tricky.

Anyway, I'm gonna post my cart off to Nintendo soon, and I think it'll get sent to Germany to be fixed before being sent back to me within 3 weeks time. But I hope it's sooner than that - I really want to play this game!

My Sonic duvet cover on UK:RESISTANCE

I'm very pleased to say that my Sonic duvet set was recently featured on popular all-things-Sega blog UK:RESISTANCE. I've been reading the blog now for a while now as I enjoy the humour and nostalgic remembrance of Sega in 90s Britain. And a couple of months ago I decided to take some pictures of my duvet cover and pillow and send them in, and finally they were published on the blog. You can read the post for some background on the set, and judging by the comments it seems that this duvet was quite a popular item.

THE AMAZING SONIC DUVET AND PILLOW CASE!

Guitar Hero

My brother got Guitar Hero II for his Xbox 360 for Christmas. Loads of people had recommended the game and although I didn't think I'd like it, I really do. It's fairly easy to pick up, but not so easy that it isn't a challenge, and it feels great when you nail a solo. I often play air guitar along to music when no-one's around and I did used to play guitar in a band a while back, but none of that really helps here. Although I hadn't actually heard most of them before playing, the songs are great, and my personal favourites are YYZ and Killing In The Name. Definitely check the game out if you get the chance.

Do you remember the song from the opening credits of National Lampoon's Vacation, Holiday Road? Check out this cover version by a band called matt pond PA which I found today.

Football in the snow

I've just got back from playing football at 10am on a Saturday morning in the snow! I'm finding it a little hard to type as my fingers still aren't moving properly. The match was between the Japan Societies of Sheffield University and Nottingham University, and the score in the end was 3-3, despite us leading 3-0 at one point. It was an 11-a-side game, and was more fun than the 6-a-side football I usually play.

Nintendo have recently been re-designing their websites around the world, and the UK version just launched this past week. Due to the success of the Wii and DS Nintendo seem to be taking everything a bit more seriously these days, and the new website looks nice, and is much more functional and efficient than the old one, although it is all white and doesn't have so much of that old Nintendo charm.

My account from the old site has been carried over, so I still have my balance of Stars, which are points earned by purchasing Nintendo systems and games. The Stars Catalogue has some nice collectables available - a while back I ordered a limited edition Mario Gamecube controller through the catalogue, which is pretty neat. There's also the opportunity to link your web account to your Wii and exchange Stars for Wii Points to use on things like the Virtual Console. But everything's quite expensive in terms of Stars. For example, I have just about enough for a t-shirt from the catalogue, although I've registered ten different products including two systems over the last two years.

Ah well, it's better than nothing I suppose.

GBA SP

My GBA SP came in the post today! After giving up all hope of it arriving, the parcel was finally delivered on a Sunday, which is strange, but I'm glad it's here. It's the Classic NES Edition, which was released about 3 years ago. I remember first seeing the design back then and wanting one really badly. But surface design aside, the GBA SP is a really great system - very compact, nice display, great button layout. They didn't really need to attempt a re-design with the Game Boy Micro.

I ordered some games too, which all arrived before the Game Boy. I bought Snoopy Tennis, Wacky Races, Pokémon Gold and Super Mario Land, and I forgot that I also owned three of the NES Classics games from back when I had my DS - Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Xevious. Awesome!

The Game Boy isn't quite in "excellent condition", as the eBay listing described, but it's just charging up now and I can't wait to start playing.

Gaming

I traded in my DS Lite the other week. I just didn't play it anymore, so I decided to trade it in for some cash and buy a cheaper system like a Game Boy.

I did really enjoy Meteos, Tetris DS and Mario Kart DS were cool and New Super Mario Bros. was OK, but there weren't any new games I wanted. And it's strange, but I think I just prefer older consoles. I don't know why exactly. It's probably because of the retro/nostalgia factor and because I like to be different. Plus, old stuff is cheaper as well.

I actually bought a GBA SP on eBay, but it got lost in the post, so I'm going to order another one. And I might get a Gamecube too and start gaming properly again, especially over Christmas, because I miss it. Also, my housemate just set up a SNES in the living room the other day, which is really cool. I didn't know he was into anything like that, and I'm currently working my way through Super Mario World whenever I'm cooking or something down there.

METEOR

Is this possibly the best shop in the world?

It's a Japanese shop (Tokyo) of course, and it's called Meteor. It sells Famicom games, retro PC games, video game themed music, clothing and other goods. I'll note this one down to check out next year when I'm there.

My NES-style bedroom

I finally got round to taking some pictures of my new bedroom at my parents' house which I mentioned here. When they moved house recently I decided to have my room decorated using the colour scheme of the Nintendo Entertainment System; grey walls, dark red skirting boards and black carpet. It's probably the nerdiest thing I've ever done and I'm pleased with the result. It's not really obvious - most people wouldn't walk in and realise the inspiration - but it's pretty cool to tell people my room is the same colour as a NES.

So here are a couple of pictures I took. Not the best photos, but they give you an idea. One bigger shot (with my MMPR duvet cover) and a comparison with an actual NES.

It's my birthday again

I'd say I'm settled in at my new place now. I've been here for over 3 weeks, and I've managed to establish some sort of routine. And routine is quite important for me. I don't like having my life disrupted too much, but it's inevitable when big things like moving house happen.

It's actually my 20th birthday today. I'm not doing much else other than going out for a meal with my family tonight. I'm not particularly excited. I guess that's how it is from now on. And 20, that sounds like a big number and I don't like it too much. I'll probably just end up getting money, which I will be spending on a new crash cymbal.

Even after having the original crack cut out of my current crash cymbal, another formed just above the cut. Whilst it's a bit annoying, I'm not too surprised, and it does mean that I get to buy a new crash. My current cymbal setup is all Paiste, but after this crack I thought I'd try something else and I've decided to splash out on a Zildjian cymbal. Although they are the most expensive brand of cymbals, they are also widely regarded as the highest quality brand too. I've not really played too many Zildjians, but I've always been impressed with them when I have. I've put a deposit down on a Zildjian 17" Z Custom Rock Crash. I decided to go for something from the Z Custom line as they are apparently highly durable, and the sound sample on the Zildjian website sounds great. I look forward to picking it up and playing it soon.

I've been intending to get a Wii for a while too, and I assumed my birthday would be the time I would finally go through with it and buy one, but it looks like I'm going to have to wait a little longer (maybe Christmas?). I don't think I'll have enough spare cash and I probably won't have enough time to play it that often as well. I'm forecasting quite a busy year ahead. Now I have the internet I'm going to work on getting a few episodes of my podcast released as well as setting up a video game style music netlabel I'm working on. I'm also starting a new band with a friend from university. Yeah, I'm gonna be pretty busy.

Moving houses

I just moved house twice during the past few days. I'm sharing a place near to the city centre with some friends for the coming university year and I moved there last Sunday. Then my family also moved house the day after.

Whilst I'm staying at my place near the town centre from now on, today I came over to my family's new house. It's the first time I've seen it with painted walls and with stuff in. I do have a room here and it's been decorated in the style of a NES, so I'll definitely have to get pictures of that up sometime soon.

I liked my last house, especially my bedroom, but I also like my two new houses. While I've only been moved out for a week, it feels really good just to be doing things for myself a bit more.

In other news: Diddy Kong will be a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl! Since Melee I've wanted to see him included, so I'm pretty happy with this news.