People play it with their iPhones or Androids or PSPs on the streets, in cars or buses or trains, while waiting for their turn at a reception area, and another handful more play with it on their Windows PC at work and at home.

So it got me thinking, what does someone without an iPhone or a Droid who was an Ubuntu user like me need to do to get their hands on this phenomenal time-waster?

Step 1. Get a copy of Angry Birds for the PC

Step 2. Install Wine

Click here to install Wine automagically (see Installing Programs in Ubuntu and Installing Programs with your Browser)

Step 3. Run Wine > Configure Wine. The defaults should be ok, just make sure everything’s dandy. In my case I had to go into the Audio tab for Wine to recommend a driver. I just said, “you bet!”

Step 4. Download the MSVCP90.dll file and place it in your Angry Birds folder.

Step 5. Right click the AngryBirds.exe and select Open with Wine Windows Program Loader

If you don’t want to play Angry Birds full screen like in my screenshots (useful when you’re playing in the office and you need a way to quickly hide it from your boss), open up the config.lua file in the AngryBirds folder and change fullscreen to “false”

Easy as scrambled eggs!

Tested on Lucid Lynx and Maverick Meerkat with default Wine (from repository) v1.2.2

So I got my brains out of the drawer, dusted it off, and started using it a bit, and thought up of a cheap, simple, and really easy-to-do but very elegant solution! The philosophy behind it? Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Things We Need:

• IR LED
• LED Keylight
• Small screwdriver
• Long-nose pliers
• Wire cutter

First step is to go to your nearest electronics store and buy an IR LED. Then get yourself to the nearest flea market (like Divisoria) or dollar store (over here and in Japan, we have Daiso, which is where I got this). Buy one of those small LED keychain lights.

The reason I bought this particular type is:

1. The LED is immediately visible
2. It has ONLY ONE LED
3. As shown on the back of the box, it is EASY to replace the regular LED without any “hacking”.

NOTE: It is also possible to buy an LED flashlight from the dollar store and convert it into an IR flashlight. It’s use and application, however, is different from this IR “lightpen” tutorial. Also, depending on the flashlight you buy, you might need a hell of a lot more IR LEDs.

Before our mod, this is how the LED keylight shines: with a nice, bright white LED light.

According to the instructions on the back, you simply unscrew the four tiny screws at the back housing openand the housing comes apart. There are two CR2016 3V batteries sandwiched between the legs of the LED. Once you get the keylight housing open, removing them is as simple as plopping them down onto your palm.

Note that the white LED’s legs are bent into a certain shaped and cut to a certain length. The spacing of the legs is just enough so that the batteries are not in contact with both legs at the same time. There are also grooves in the housing to prevent the LED from moving around too much, and that’s also why the legs are cut to size. You want to shape and cut the IR LED’s legs to match as closely as possible to the original. Use a pair of long-nose pliers and wire cutter.

The final step is to test if our creation is working. Since the IR LED is emitting infrared, which isn’t in the visible spectrum, you’re going to need to use your webcam or a digicam to see if it’s working or not. Here is a shot of the IR keylight using my phone’s camera.

So there you have it! An IR LED light tutorial that’s easy on the pockets and very professional-looking without you needing to break a sweat (or any tools). What are we gonna use it for? Stay tuned, we’re gonna get to that next time!

Don’t have World of Warcraft yet?
Buy World of Warcraft (PC CD-ROM) at Play-Asia.com

Buy World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack (PC CD-ROM) at Play-Asia.com

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

Learn more about Max and the Magic Marker from their official web site.
If you’d like to subscribe to GameTrailers Wii, click on the following button:

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

Pre-Order your copy of Muramasa: Demon Blade from PlayAsia to get it as soon as it comes out!

Click on the following links for the other games in the lineup:

• New Super Mario Brothers Wii
• Wii Sports Resort
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
• Sin and Punishment 2

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

P.S. Yes I know I said I’ll be posting about iPod and Ubuntu. Don’t worry, we’re getting there.

The USC makes managing all of your software easier.

Ubuntu Software Center [update]

Since Karmic Koala, Ubuntu has been coming out with Ubuntu Software Center with progressively more and more features, and it seeks to centralize all of the software management in your Ubuntu system, making some of the methods listed below obsolete. Even when installing from Debs (see below) or when installing packages through your browser, it now shows the application using the Ubuntu Software Center.

The whole purpose of this change was to centralize everything and make it easier to manage all of your software. Notably, you’ll be greeted by some software recommendations in the form of Featured and What’s New sections. You can continue browsing through categories of software, and you will also be able to purchase some commercial software straight from the interface. Also take note that additional repositories will also now show up at the sidebar so you can easily browse only software from that repository.

Add/Remove Programs…

Click on Applications then on Add/Remove Programs…

The Add/Remove window will appear and you’ll be presented with a lot of applications that you can install, organized by category. You can quickly find an application by typing in the first few letters of its name (while the application list is focused), clicking on one of the categories to trim down the list, or by entering a few keywords in the search bar on top.

Tick the checkboxes of the applications you want to install and click Apply. After the applet downloads the package files and installs them, no questions asked (no pesky options which you’ll ignore and clcik Next anyway).

Synatic Package Manager

Installing GNOME Raw Thumbnailer via Synaptic

Synaptic functions much the same way as the Add Remove Programs, except it displays the packages themselves instead of the application. Most applications are composed of multiple packages, though you don’t have to worry about that because when you choose to install a package (ex. miro), it automatically prompts to install all the dependencies (packages which miro needs to run). Go ahead, try it for yourself. Oh, and as with the Add/Remove Programs method, there are still no pesky questions aside from the “Apply The Following Changes?” confirmation. Whereas the Add/Remove Programs… applet offers you a user-friendly interface to pimp out your Ubuntu box, Synaptic offers you a way of choosing specific packages to install (more often than not, instructions on the net will tell you specific packages to install), while still remaining relatively user-friendly.

Debian Packages (.deb files)

Installing the Skype .deb

This method is perhaps the most familiar to Windows users:

1. Download the deb file (Win users might be more familiar with the term installer)
2. Run the deb file
3. Agree to the End User License Agreement (EULA)
4. Select destination folder and click Next
5. Select Full or Custom Install. If Custom, select the appropriate options.
6. Click Install

My bad, there are no steps 3, 4, and 5.

Aptitude

Aptitude is the command-line utility used for installing packages. Now before you go dissing off Aptitude because it’s a terminal command, consider that when you’re installing a lot of programs at once (or following instructions off the net), it’s quite faster and easier to type (or paste) in the command-line sudo aptitude install blender miro mirthkit scummvm filelight deluge frozen-bubble than it is to find and select those 7 applications.

Source Code

When worse comes to worst, you can install most open source applications by performing the following steps:

1. Downloading the source code (usually distributed as a .tar.gz file)
2. Extracting it (Right-click > Extract here… or tar -xzf file.tar.gz)
3. Entering the extracted folder via the terminal
4. sudo aptitude install build-essential if you haven’t done so already
5. Typing in ./configure
6. Typing in make
7. Typing in sudo make install
8. If you want your program to be removable via Synaptic/Aptitude, use sudo checkinstall -D. This will create a package first before installing it.

A more thorough explanation of the compile process can be found eleswhere on the Internet. Just Google it.

A Word About Dependencies

One of the fundamental differences between programs in Unix/Mac/Linux and Windows is the way a program is packaged. As you install more and more applications, you’ll notice that fully-functional programs only use up a few kilobytes, sometimes only a few megabytes, and you might begin to wonder how Linux programs get to be so small when compared to their Windows counterparts.

This is because of one of the unwritten rules in writing programs for Linux, writing many small applications with a single purpose rather than 1 massive application that does many, allows many programs to use and share libraries or even other programs. These libraries or programs that an application uses are called dependencies. In Windows, save for a few Windows DLLs, each application needs to include everything in its installers (haven’t you ever wondered why you’d hardly find any CD installers for Linux?).

There is a term called dependency hell. I personally experienced this back when I was using Red Hat. It describes what happens when you have an application with several dependencies, where each dependency has a few more dependencies themselves or is dependent on a specific version of an application. Thankfully, the package manager for Ubuntu (and Debian for that matter) is very robust in automatically handling these dependencies for you.

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

 

Stay away! You're wallet would be safer with a thief!

“7,750?” I asked. “7,795 po”, the saleswoman corrected me, the tone of her voice proud, as if they were selling the deal of the century. Indeed, Datablitz’s price is one of the lowest, compared to around 9,500 pesos in the toy shops of the large malls like SM Toy Kingdom, Toys R Us, and that toy store in Landmark Trinoma. If only people knew that they were actually selling the WiiFit more than 200% of its real price. At Yodobashi in Japan, the Wii Fit sells for 8,360 yen or about 4,180 pesos. And it would have been even lower if it wasn’t for the bad foreign exchange right now, and since Yodobashi is like a huge chain of super stores, you could find an even better deal if you bought from other smaller stores. An imported Japanese DSi would set you back 17,800 pesos here. It’s SRP? 18,800 yen (9,400 pesos). A Wii console costs 22,000 pesos. It sells for 25,000 yen anywhere in Japan. And good luck looking for a Y30,000 Xbox 360 Premium. You’d be lucky to get it here for 20,000 pesos (Y40,000). Apparently, I’m not the only one being miffed by this whole situation; this situation has been going on since the PSX and is not likely to abate any time soon.

Sadly the state of gaming here in the Philippines isn’t limited to overpricing. Piracy is so rampant that the ones who would dare buy *gasp!* original games/software are considered weird! Not rich. weird. Rich peope here still buy pirated games. And establishments “for the masses” like SM don’t help the situation at all with their overpricing. I don’t quite understand it. Some say that this is a third-world country, and people simply can’t afford buying original. Yet, these same people can afford DVD players, PSPs, DSs and Playstation consoles?

Their response? “Well, it’s because we save our money to buy that PSP. But that’s it, we can’t afford to shell out for an original game every month”. Read that again, I urge you, and tell me there’s nothing wrong here. It’s not that people can’t afford it. It isn’t frugality or a sense of economy. Rather, it’s because people here are too cheap, piracy has become the norm, and you can practically hack your PSP at the nearest convenience store.

My Tips To Stay Pirate-Free:

1. Buy online. Datablitz is good, but you’ll find great deals on forums like Pinoy-N, Pinoy XBox, or your favorite local gaming forum. You can buy new original games from P2,000 all the way down to P1,000 sometimes. Plus you get to meet new people.
2. Set aside money for 1 game a month. If you followed #1, you will only have to set aside P50-P100 each allowance/working day to do this.
3. Actually TRY TO FINISH all games that you buy. Try this, and it will make #2 even easier. When you buy pirated, you get tons of games, and maybe play for a good 10 minutes and that’s it. Not only did you bring the value of the game down by pirating it, you also bring it down by not playing it through.
4. Get your siblings to pitch in. If you’re like most families, you’ll have at least one. If they don’t like it, they don’t play. Simple as that.
5. Buy 2nd hand games. Come on, don’t be stupid. This isn’t a car or computer, this is a piece of software. Unless he sells you something that looks like it was scratched by a paper shredder, it’s still worth it (especially when you can get one near-mint condition for P500! Oh yeah!)

Hey, if you have any more tips that we all could use, hit the comments!;)

The XBox 360 dropped out in the very first round while the Wii and PS3 continued on duelling it out till the end. Applause! Applause! Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t get a 360 after all…

Note: I urge you not to perform this test yourself, but feel free to do so. I waive all responsibility.

Social Bookmarks:

Well, the Guardians of Space are back, and they’re kicking Ryu’s ass in this video of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for the Wii! Watch the video to see the beautiful, head-bashing visuals:

After the break, we have Ghostbusters coming to the Wii



About a decade after the Ghostbusters movie, you can now relive the adventures of Pete, Egon, Rey, and Winston as they zap the crap out of Slimer, the Staypuft Marshmallow man, and other new ghosts in the upcoming Ghostbusters video game, coming out for multiple platforms:

Visit the Ghostbusters home page for more info.

Last, but certainly not the least, if you haven’t heard of The Conduit (you haven’t heard of The Conduit?!), it’s an upcoming FPS for the Wii that is going to push the limits of the Wii’s hardware. While most developers were still too busy playing with the motion controllers of the Wii and testing the Wii waters (Wii Music, anyone?), the Conduit creators decided it was better to make a splash and created it’s own engine for the Wii, called the Quantum 4 engine, and as showcased in this video:

Developers take note, the Wii’s hardware may not be as powerful as the PS3, but it certainly isn’t weak (and the controls, of course, well, there’s nothing like it). Please, please, please, snatch up this Quantum 4 engine and give us better-looking, envelope-pushing games!

And here is the Quantum 4 engine, as used in The Conduit. Enjoy!

Social Bookmarks:

Before entering the hall, you are greeted by this giant. Though I’m unfamiliar with who he is.

Among the games there was a big booth showing Cooking Mama 2 for both the DS and Wii versions.

The Need For Speed Undercover booth had a sports car on display, while video displays were continuously playing trailers of the game.

Monster Rancher 3 was also demoed, showing the controls side-by-side with the gameplay.

There was also Taiko no Tatsujin game, though I wonder why it took them this long to make one.

The one game I actually lined up for was Let’s Tap. Not because it had a comparatively fast line (play time is limited to three stages), but because it had the most innovative gameplay; it’s the only game where you’re NOT SUPPOSED TO HOLD THE CONTROLLER. Instead, you place the Wiimote face-down on a box (see pictures below). The Let’s Play box, but I asked the usherette and she said any normal box could be used, in case your Let’s Play box is already in tatters from too much playing. You then…tap. And tap and tap and tap. It’s really amazing.

Final Fantasy Dissidia

Tenchu 4

アルコスの戦士 (Arugus no senshi)/Rygar: The Battle of Argus

Capcom

Sega

Takara Tomy

There were also some cosplayers, though they weren’t part of any of the events. I think they’re just seizing the opportunity to dress up.

and then there were some mascots as well.

There was a nice display of cool Wa-Sa-Bi Cases for handhelds. Pictured here are the DS cases, but there are also cases for PSP and cellphones.

Over at the Game Science Museum booth, surprising I saw  Johnny Lee’s Wii Head Tracking software! From the looks of it, they just downloaded the software directly and put it there.

Beside the head tracking display there was a display showing a graph of the outputs of the Wiimote accelerometers. Having played Let’s Tap early, I put the Wiimote face down and tapped on the table. And yes! The Wiimote is THAT sensitive!

Well that’s all for this week. If ever you’re in Japan, the Tokyo Game Show runs until tomorrow, so you have one more day to go. Then again, there’s always next year. If you want to pre-order some of these games,try searching Play-Asia here:

Remember, they offer free delivery.

Social Bookmarks: