artiss.blog

Category: Gaming

All things from my gaming world.

  • It's, oh, so quiet

    I know there’s been a lack of content recently. However, this is due to a number of factors…

    1. I’m very busy on version 2 of my YouTube Embed plugin – a huge change and my most complex plugin yet – this is taking a big chunk of my time.
    2. I’m using the excellent new Google Page Speed Online to look at various improvements to site speed. I’ve also been, and will continue to, making changes to this site.
    3. Spent far too much time trying to sort out a technical issue with Streamline. It’s still not resolved and I’m sure, at the rate they’re going, a rant post is imminent.
    4. I get a lot of this work done at home in the evening. However, I’m looking at moving house so apart from traipsing around various properties, I’m also getting lots of DIY done as well.

    I’m also expending a bit of time preparing for my birthday in a couple of weeks time. It’s a, erm, “special” birthday and I’ve asked for money or Amazon gift vouchers – I’ll then be the proud owner of a Playstation 3! I should add that all the preparation is deciding what games and accessories to buy 😉

    However, I do have a couple of articles to publish so, when I find time, I’ll try and get those completed.

     

  • What's the future for gaming consoles?

    With the recent announcement of both the Nintendo 3DS and the Sony NGP consoles, I wonder if these may be the last of their type.

    Smartphones are becoming more and more powerful (dual core Android phones are starting to become the “norm” and quad cores are on their way too) and LG’s Optimus 3D is now bringing, ahead of the 3DS, a 3D glasses-free screen to phones.

    Powerful processors, 3D screens and games companies lining up to author for them – why will the console be needed in such a phone market?

    Sony Ericsson are already bridging this with their announced Xperia Play, a smartphone which can run Android games, but will also run their own branded games and comes with a Playstation style slide-out control pad.

    I can’t see this impacting the home console market however as they are expanding away from just purely games to attract to a wider audience. Whilst connected to your TV it makes sense for them to offer further services, such as TV on-demands and film downloads (in fact I’m saving up for a PS3 at the moment for just this reason).

    It won’t be long before the only non-console and smartphone gaming will be the various free online poker and bingo sites. And I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before they move to these mediums as well. The PC will probably be relegated to complex-control games such as flight simulators and World of Warcraft.

    3D I think, will be a gimmick – particularly the TV-based 3D which requires glasses. As one of the (apparently) 1-in-6 people who can’t see 3D properly anyway (and it gives me a headache, no matter how well it’s done) I’ll never buy in anyway (this from someone who still has a CRT television in his living room).

    Having said all that, though, I’m usually rubbish at predictions (this is someone who in the 90’s said that DVDs would never be popular).

  • Replacing a Nintendo DS Case

    I’ve recently become the proud owner of a Nintendo DS – it used to belong to my older daughter and has seen better days. In particular, the hinge was broken. It was also quite mucky (under the plastic, so not easily cleaned) and had various chips and scratches. Oh, and the battery compartment was missing.

    To have sent it away to Nintendo and had the hinge fixed would have cost at least £30, so I decided to investigate alternatives. And on eBay I found a UK seller who supplies completely new replacement cases, along with installation instructions. All of this is for the princely sum of £13.99. Oh, and I also had to buy a “Nintendo” screwdriver to get out the pesky “Y” screws. None-the-less, it was far cheaper than a repair, and would resolve the grubbiness and missing parts issue as well.

    It arrived last week and it was immediately obvious that this isn’t a genuine Nintendo part, as the case is obviously not the same. The original is white plastic with a thick transparent layer on top. The new was simply a glossy white plastic. It also didn’t seem to be of the same high quality. The installation instructions were also rubbish – thankfully I found a 3 part video on YouTube on how to swap over the cases.

    So, at the weekend I sat down to follow the videos. I’d like to say it was easy and went well, but sadly it didn’t. Here’s what I found…

    1. The new case comes with its own screws (and none of them Y shaped screws). Sadly, nothing says which screws are for what and the plastic posts they screw into aren’t particular good quality – I would often find that none of the supplied screws would easily work, so I had to use some brute force to get them to “bite”.
    2. One of the screen screws on the original case wouldn’t move and I had to break the case apart to get into it 🙁
    3. The shoulder buttons are a test of patience, which I very nearly failed. They are a nightmare to put back, involving metal posts and springs.
    4. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the power switch to drop into place when fitting the new case together. In the end, I put the switch from the old case in and it worked first time.
    5. The new Start and Select buttons are awful – you really have to push them down with your nail to get them to respond.

    But here are the two big problems…

    1. The final fit and finish leaves a lot to be desired. In particular, the part of the case in front of the bottom screen doesn’t have anything to hold it together and therefore “gapes” quite considerably. I ended up using Super Glue to hold it together.
    2. The 3 part video on YouTube suddenly ended stating to continue to part 4. Sadly, no part 4 has been added, so it leaves you at the tricky stage of adding the shoulder buttons. Thankfully, I managed to find another video that completed the instructions. However, for a while I was panicking!

    At the end of it, I’m not sure if it was worthwhile. £30 would have got me a guaranteed repair – a mucky case, but I could have got a replacement battery compartment. Instead, I’ve spend £16.49 (including the screwdriver) and have a clean, usable DS now, but sadly of much poorer quality build.

  • No Power to Nintendo Wii!

    Tonight I noticed there was no power light at all on my Wii – normally, even if off, the light on the front is red. Now, there was a brief power cut on Monday night and I wonder if it happened then.

    Anyway, I unplugged it (which involved moving the TV out and pulling out lots of cables!) and tried another power socket – nothing.

    Bum.

    Hopefully, I was thinking, it was the power supply – that would be cheap to replace!

    I did a quick Google though and came across a Nintendo article that explains how the AC Adapter can be “reset” (I assume it has some kind of protective cut-out facility built in) – you, basically, unplug the power supply from both ends, leave it 2 minutes and then try it again. So I unplug it and leave it while I go and wash-up. Plugging it back in, I do indeed get power back!

    One thing that would have helped would have been some kind of power light on the power supply itself – most laptop PSUs have one, and it’s a shame the Wii doesn’t. If it’s for “green” reasons, why not have a small button that you press – if it has power a light comes on momentarily?

  • Beeb See Me

    After yesterdays post about the iPlayer on the Wii, I was surprised to have a couple of BBC techie people commenting on it.

    I was, however, even more surprised to come in this morning and find that the same post had been referenced on the BBC website (in case you’re wondering how I knew, I use Google Alerts to inform me of any reference to my site)! I suspect they’ve not seen my update though, where I had constant problems with bandwidth problems and the resultant pausing of playback.

    Oh well, 15 minutes of minor fame…