Orchard's Codex

Animal crossing

2007-11-21T16:03:56Z

Someone pasted this on #tigirc just now. I never really played animal crossing, but I found this to be pretty sweet:

http://www.anaitgames.com/wp-content/animalcrossing_mirror.jpg

Abe Lincoln must die!

2007-11-07T10:40:28Z

I'm sure this is old news by now. The good guys at telltalegames/gametap has decided to release Sam & Max episode 4: Abe Lincoln Must Die as freeware in anticipation for season 2 launch. You can get the game from here:

http://www.telltalegames.com/community/blogs/id-268

international portal

2007-10-23T11:42:15Z

The international portal for my ISP just went down. As of currently I can't visit some of the sites I frequent, including gmail.com, which I desperately need to use right now to contact my playtester. Jebus, this shit always happens I really need to use the net.

Fedora Spade 3 Finished

2007-10-14T07:06:26Z

I finally finished the game two days ago. The last few months working on case 3 have been hectic, and I had doubt if I'm ever going to finish it on schedule, but it looks like I finished it ahead of schedule. Whew... I feel like a million bucks. It's too early for celebration though. Playtesting and proofreading is going to be hell. Well, mostly the proofreading. I got most of the bugs sorted out. Retrogamer won't be proofreading case 3 because of IRL business. It seems like I'll need to find someone who can fill the role. Ack, it's probably going to be a long while before I can release the game.

I'm also still hoping to find someone who can compose NSF tunes for the game, but things aren't looking so hot right now. I sent an email to a profilic NSF composer a while back, and his response was enthusiastic. The thing is, it takes him like, a month or so to reply email. He said that he's been extremely busy at work or something but is still interesting on composing some tunes for the games. That was 2 months ago and I haven't heard from him since. At this point, I have my fingers crossed. Oh well...

Are you a hot-blooded mangaka!?

2007-08-11T10:50:25Z

Saw this while browsing a manga review site today. Looks pretty amusing. Apparently it's a humorous manga about a hotblooded mangaka drawn in in the style of the 70s shonen manga. The art reminds me a bit of Tetsuya Chiba.

To Rinku

2007-06-25T13:39:46Z

Ack, enountered an unexpected bug while tinkering with the Tomato engine's password system. The password system only works normally if you only have one string of text. If you use more than one string of text, it'll ask you to input the text on the first string of text even though you have more than one string of text (instead of waiting until the end of the text string to ask for the password.) Help! :o

le title

2007-06-12T13:35:38Z

Internet line went down for the whole day yesterday. It was a hassle trying to get it back up. I accidentally reseted my wireless modem and I need some configure it back. I called the service center and asked for some help. The dude on the other line was just clueless. All I need to do is input the RIGHT static DNS IP into the configuration, and he didn't even know it. He told me he's going to report it to the techies and have them call me later. 6 hours later... they did, and I got the static DNS IP address. I really CAN'T understand why I to wait 6 hours to get these numbers. Oh well, I could spend an eternity bitching about the broadband service here, but it won't do me any good. On the bright side, I managed to finish 3 cutscenes for FS episode 3.

Huh...? Huh? HUH!?

2007-05-26T13:01:03Z

These past few days have been pretty depressing. It's one of those days you thought you just can't help but wonder if you made the right decision. Did I? I don't know, but it's one of those things that really should be the last thing on my mind right now, because it's already too late for that. I already made a decision and the only thing I can do from now and move forward. Still, knowing this fact doesn't make it easier for me to sleep at nights.

Anyway, moving on to other things. I still CAN'T find the courage to drive here. Shit, everytime I think about it, I just want to forget about ever driving here. I thought traffic was goddamn worse in California, but shit, it was nothing compared to the traffic over here. Fuck driving ethics, nobody's got one here... cause they all bribed the motor vehicle department guys for their driving license. If you had an accident with one of those guys, you better be ready to pay up, because... well, it's just the way it is... even if you're completely in the right (but of course, they'll probably beat you up if you're Chinese.) It's been a month since I last driven a stick shift too and I'm beginning to forget the basics of it. I miss the auto car that I used back in the States. Ah, forget all of this stick shift nonsense... I'm saving up for a matic car.

Retro's 60% done with the proofreading so far, so I dunno, looks like the game might be released in mid june or something. I'm not really in a rush though... I'm currently working on episode 3 in the meantime.

Fedora Spade 3

2007-05-01T15:47:24Z

I don't know why this keeps happening. I told myself to take a LONG break right after I finish episode 2, but it seems that I feel extremely uneasy when I'm not working on something. Not going to do ANY writing for the time being though... just a couple of new cutscenes and a new portrait set. I already have more than enough art asset to start episode 3 anyway.

Fedora Spade episode 1 & 2 mock-up box

2007-04-27T16:11:24Z

Fedora Spade 2 done

2007-04-26T14:36:13Z

I just finished playtesting it today. As far as I'm concerned, I'm done with Fedora Spade for now. I'm just going to release episode 1 and 2 around mid June or something.

There are problems however...

There are bugs I simply can't get rid of. I assume it's a bug that's caused by the tomato engine itself. It could be because the last few room scripts are so text-heavy that GM's memory usage overloaded or something. It only happened on the last few rooms though... damnit, I guess I have to live with it. It's not exactly game breaking though...

DSL

2007-03-22T02:04:14Z

I got ze DSL.

Back. Kind of.

2007-03-21T15:38:12Z

I haven't died yet. I'm in the process of obtaining a DSL line installed... a process that seems to take an eternity. You know how cable companies are. The worst part is that it's owned by the indonesian government. Good grief, now you know for sure that it's going to take until the dawn of time to get the DSL line installed.

Anyways, the operator said they'll have the DSL line activated tomorrow or something. I'll take that with a grain of salt. They said the same thing a couple days ago.

Regarding Fedora Spade. Yeah. I remember saying that I'll have it released by the end of february. That didn't happen, didn't it? Well, what happened?

Nothing much, really. I decided to hold off releasing the game until I have the second episode done. I can't say when I'll be done with it. Work's been extremely busy and demanding. Despite that, I've been able to put at least 1-2 hours into the game every day. By my own estimation, I'm 50% done with the second episode.

Fedora Spade

2007-01-22T14:19:14Z

Well, I finished the game a few days ago. I'm going to play with it for a while before sending it to my usual circle of playtesters (rinku, januk, retro, etc.) I was hoping to release it before february, but eh... I think I might be late by a few days.

Still alive

2007-01-01T12:30:48Z

I just deleted 69 room data files off Neverwhere gamemaker file, along with the phone data and item data. I'm starting over, basically. Not a big deal though, I'm still using rinku's tomato engine and I have buttload of art assets already done. I think I'll be able to put something up by early February or so.

to rinku: would it be possible for you to e-mail the code to remove the warping feature?

Trauma Center

2006-12-08T09:17:06Z

I got this off the bargain bin for $15 while hunting for a DS-USB cable. So far I'm really enjoying the game, though there's some parts that really pisses me off. I don't quite understand how the bandaging works. I stitch 'em up, gel 'em, and bandage 'em... it's supposed to work that way right? Well, I'm getting plenty of "miss" messages. What kind of voodoo stylus ritual do I have to do get it right? I mean, for God's sake, will the patient DIE if I use the bandage excessively by one inch? Maybe the setting is in a hospital where it's very budget savvy, who knows. I just keep trying until I finally get the bandaging right... and when I did get it right, I'm not even sure that I did anything different than before.

On another note, I finally got Phoenix Wright. I've only played the first case, but so far, what I really enjoyed what I have played. I'm trying to avoid playing Phoenix Wright because I'm saving it for the 20hours plane ride back to Indonesia.

Also: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zM6rFf8U3gw

I guess they wouldn't be calling Gyakuten Saiban 4 Phoenix Wright, huh?

Indy games & stuff

2006-11-26T08:04:11Z

Notable indie games are few as of late, but here's one worth checking out - Darkside Adventures. It's by Bernie, the author of that platformer game with a kitty.

http://www.origamihero.com/#8

And here's an arranged music track from my tomato project: http://setu.castleparadox.com/orchy/fhtn/mp3/07-The%20Nightmare%20is%20Over.mp3

best commercial ever?

2006-11-07T09:45:58Z

Buh!

2006-10-29T01:50:20Z

I found this yesterday while checking out classic anime opening themes. I have never seen this anime before, but I've read the manga years ago. I don't know the actual title, since I read the Indonesian version of it... and they pretty much translated the dialogue, names, and title randomly (it's called "Knight's Blood" in Indonesia.) This manga is extremely rare in Indonesia, I only have one volume of it that I own, I read the rest from my friends.

This is basically like the classic example of a nekketsu manga. The main character is student who attends a high school full of delinquents (pretty much what Cromartie is spoofing, and probably what inspires River City Ransom/Kunio-kun.) The plot is basically about the main character, clearing out the "bosses" from the first year, the second year, and of course, the dreaded leaders of the third year gangsters.

I wonder if I can find an MP3 version of the opening song, but I really doubt it. It's a really obscure anime title... and hell, I don't even know the actual title of the show!

Nostalgia with Youtube

2006-10-27T09:21:55Z

I saw the anime much later, but Candy Candy was the first manga I read.

They titled this "Born to Cook" in Indonesia. Basically an anime about, well, cooking.

I remember waking up early to watch this show. Looking back, this is probably the stupidest anime show I've ever seen... but at the time, I like it. It's a show about mini-4WDs (yikes...)

KICKERS~~~~ :o

I have vague memories of this series, but I just can't seem to forget the theme song. My older brother likes this series a lot.

Death Note

2006-10-25T20:34:37Z

I finished reading Death Note some 2 months, ago and I can't help but scratch my head everytime I heard someone gushing about how awesome it is. To be fair, I really enjoyed the first few volumes. A lot of people will probably admit that they thought that the series went downhill after the L arc. As for me, the series lost its appeal to me way before the L arc ended.

The battle of intelligence between Light and L pretty much goes like this: "I know that you know that I know that you know about the trap! So I pretended that I didn't know about it even though I actually know that you know that I know about teh trap!!!111 LOLZ"

And sure enough, this is also how the final battle ends in Death Note.

Doraemon Doujinshi

2006-09-30T20:07:34Z

If you don't know Doraemon/ grow up with Doraemon, you might as well skip this entry. However, if you do, I think you should definitely check this doujin out:

http://orchieluv.castleparadox.com/dora/

Doraemon never actually got an ending. I think it's probably still an on-going series in Japan under different authors. The folder I uploaded contain an unofficial ending to the series. It's pretty good; it really mimics the Fujiko F. Fujio's duo writing and drawing style. I think if the duo ever made an ending to Doraemon, it'll probably be something like this.

Higurashi

2006-09-17T06:47:23Z

I was doing research about comiket yesterday night when I found out about Higurashi and decided to wiki/google it up. It's interesting... apparently Higurashi is an amateur suspense/mystery visual novel series that were released during comiket beginning August 2002. Rumor has it that the first time the author tried to sell it on Comiket, he was unable to sell even one copy of the fifty discs that he made. He didn't give up and decided to sell it again during the next comiket, and apparently, he hit it big. The "game" has gotten so popular that there's a manga adaptation of it published by Square-Enix. Not long after, Geneon licensed it for an anime series. Talk about success, eh?

Anyway, I got interested in Higurashi and tried to youtube it and found a rather interesting enough... apparently the anime has been fansubbed and the entire series is on youtube. I've been watching it since this morning.

The anime's got an interesting setup. There are a total of 4 question arcs and 4 answer arcs total. Basically the question arcs present the viewers with 4 murder mysteries set around the same time, but all have alternate plot. The way they present the arcs is interesting... you'd think that they'd show you the question and answer arc alternately, but they don't. Once you're done with one question arc, you're presented with another... leaving you speculate about what actually happens. We don't really get to see the answer arcs until all the question arcs are done.

So far I'm hooked on the series, but I think this will serve me well in writing Neverwhere. I must lodge my complaints though... seriously, why the super cute style? I will never understand the current manga trend towards super-cute stylization, I personally loathe it. Besides, it conflicts with the nature of the anime. Second, the story is supposedly set in 1983, but why doesn't it look like it's the eighties? The setting looks like a generic 200X moe anime to me.

Diploma

2006-09-05T22:16:14Z

So I finally got my diploma on the mailbox today. It's a strange feeling. A couple of years back, I can really never see myself graduating. Even after I attended the graduation ceremony, I was pessimistic about the whole thing. I thought for sure someone's going to screw me up on the administration or something, or maybe I just forgot about that one class I'm supposed take. Now that I have the diploma on my hand, I guess I'm not too paranoid about the whole thing anymore. But seriously though, the damn diploma looks like it's been printed straight out an inkjet printer in the computer lab. It looks so... cheap. Heh.

Job hunting has mostly been a bust for me. I'm starting to think that I'll never get a job here. Few of the companies are willing to hire people with practical training working permit. Not surprised really, because we can only stay for a year or if they're willing, they can sponsor us to get a H-1 permit, which of course, costs a lot of money (and of course, something that they wouldn't be willing to do.)

Raging Boll

2006-08-28T02:48:48Z

Boll proposed a 3-round match against anyone with the guts to step into the ring with him. The matches would receive international exposure and be filmed as part of his next feature film, ‘Postal’.

Given their history of unique marketing campaigns, Internet casino GoldenPalace.com jumped at the chance to sponsor this event, now titled GoldenPalace.com Presents Raging Boll. Over the years, they have become widely recognized for sponsoring high-profile boxers, athletes, and celebrities.

http://www.goldenpalaceevents.com/other/uweboll01.php