The Witness is from the same developer who created the superb Braid. It feels like a cross between that game and Myst. Once again the game play centers around puzzle solving, but instead of time manipulation, you are solving mazes. I know what your thinking, “Mazes? Are you kidding me. Ever since the ‘Twisty maze of passages, all alike’ mazes have been the bane of every video gamer’s existence.” At first I thought the same thing. The first dozen puzzles are so easy that I assumed this was just going to be another boring walking simulator with challenges thrown in just to extend the experience a few more minutes. But then you encounter the next set of mazes which sprinkle in a few new rules (which you have to discover on your own) and things start to get more challenging. Get a little further, then you have an epiphany and realize not everything is what it seems. Perspective and your place in the 3-D environment start to matter. At that point I was sold and fully immersed myself in the world (this would make an incredible VR game).The open world structure allows you to try various challenges long before you know how they can be beaten. The island is big and there’s always easier puzzles to work on while you think things through. By the end of the game you will realize that the solution to everything has been right in front of you all along.
There really isn’t a story here but there are several audio and video clips to find that have an arty, philosophical sensibility that are more about mood than narrative. I didn’t manage to find everything. Note that if you are a 100% gamer, if you get to the ending, all the puzzles will be reset. Find everything you can before rushing to the conclusion.
A supposed sequel to The Spiritual Boxer which I’ve seen but never posted a review. Both movies are comedies but this one is really ridiculous. This is the first Chinese hopping vampire movie I’ve ever watched. As far as movie monsters go, they’re probably the lamest ever imagined. Just weird and goofy. If you can look past the bonkers premise, it’s entertaining as far as these things go. Gordon Liu is an added bonus.
Like The Flying Guillotine, the title here refers to a deadly decapitation weapon. The dragon missile is two boomerang swords that spin, hover and grind their way through stone, trees and skulls. Lo Lieh is at the center of the story and it’s unclear as to whether or not he’s the bad guy or a good guy trapped in a bad job. That is until his cuts off his mother’s head. From then on, seemingly minor characters are now the heroes as they try to enact revenge. The story has a weird structure, but it’s pretty simple and it keeps the stakes high as character’s heads get sheared off one-by-one.
I went into this book knowing nothing of the many Mrs. Peregrine books/movies/after-dinner mints. Unless Shirley Temple is the main character, I’m not one for reading YA fiction. These stories are decidedly Shirley Temple-free, and, as such, lack any references to The Good Ship Lollipop. There are a few ships in it, and for the most part they are good-ish. The rest of the book is comprised of a dozen or so wacky fables which involve various “peculiar” characters. They were okay as far as these things go.
I bought this mostly because of Andrew Davidson’s excellent wood engraved illustrations. The book design in combination with the illustrations makes for a nice package (despite the illegible gold ink in the footnotes).
An average and confusing Shaw Bros. film. I guess this is a continuation of the Deadly Venoms franchise? The titular House of Traps isn’t that impressive. Only 4 traps! I couldn’t really tell who was who. Only redeeming part is an over-the-top nail-bed torture scene.
A Story About My Uncle is a game based entirely around a single game mechanic, a grappling beam. Players shoot a beam at a distant surface, they are pulled towards the target, and then they must use inertia and timing to fling themselves towards their goal. That’s about it. We’ve seen this before in just about every Zelda game, so this is nowhere near as revolutionary as the one-mechanic behind the extraordinary Portal. Still, when it clicks, swinging across a map and carefully timing your shots can be thrilling.
The game has a kid-friendly feel in its bedtime story tone and non-violent game play. Unfortunately, as a violence craving adult, this meant that the narrative left quite a bit to be desired for me. I enjoyed it for what it was and it ended just when it was starting to become too repetitive. Fine by me.
20 years ago this month I released an album’s worth of computer music. If you weren’t one of the lucky 3 people who got a CD, this is what you missed. Last night I made an *official video* for the song “March of the Mustard King.” This was pre-Garage Band. Back when making songs on a computer was like watching the code of the Matrix scroll by. Music by nerd(s), for nerds.
This is a track from my first album of computer music called, “The Exciting Sounds of a Compaq P133” (1999). The music was created in FastTracker ][ on a Windows 98 PC. This video is showing the excellent FastTracker ][ Clone from 16-bits.org.
Update (June 2020): All of the sudden, iTunes started supporting books on the iPad 1 again so this article is mostly moot. I leave it here for posterity.
Apple has a history of abandoning users whenever they introduce a new product to the market. This wasn’t always the case. The Apple IIgs, despite its 16-bit architecture, allowed for most of the old 8-bit Apple ][ software to run on the new system. However, since the introduction of OSX, the attitude has been, “Deal with it old-timers. We know what’s best for you.”
I am the proud owner of a first generation iPad 1. I use it to play music and read eBooks. It performs these two tasks as well as any modern iPad or iPhone does. Alas, in their attempt streamline the software, Apple removed to ability to transfer PDFs and eBooks to an iPad 1 from iTunes. The entire Books section has been removed from the product with the expectation that iPad users will now get their content from the cloud. The problem is that iCloud, Dropbox and other cloud storage systems no longer work on an iPad 1.
My attempts to Google a solution have had mixed results. Apple is no help. The user help forums are filled with bad advice. In my frustration I have figured out a relatively simple way to get files, especially books, to your iPad 1. In a nutshell, we are going to create a web page containing links to all your books and then, assuming your computer and ipad are on the same local wi-fi network, browse to that web site on our iPad to download the files to iBooks.
The only catch here is that the process requires you to download a piece of software to your Mac or PC. The application is called Prepros. It is free to download and use from Prepros.io. It is an excellent piece of software that is normally a tool used for Web development to pre-process code and make it ready for a Web page. But we are going to use it as our file server.
Step 1: Download, Install and Run Prepros
If installing an application is too complicated for you, maybe you should stick to paper books.
Step 2: Organize Files for Transfer
Put any files that you want to transfer to your iPad in a single folder. In my example I have put a bunch of PDFs into a folder on my desktop called “GOG.com Manuals.” Here’s my folder next to the open Prepros app window:
Step 3: Drag and Drop your Folder into Prepros
Drag your folder into the Prepros window and drop it into the “Projects” panel.
Your folder will now appear as a “Project” with any files from the folder listed in the right panel under “Files.”
Step 4: Start the File Server
We are now going to start a local network file server by clicking the Network Preview icon (looks like a Wi-fi/Phone) on the left side of the window:
If an iPad 1 had a camera we could scan the big QR code, but for us old-timers, an IP address is provided in the popup. Note the number in the box. In the above example the IP address is 192.168.1.34:5566
Step 5: Type the IP Address into Safari on your iPad 1
Turn on your (wi-fi connected) iPad, open Safari and enter the IP address into the location bar. Your Prepros file server will appear as a Web page:
Tap on the appropriate folder to see your list files. In this example, there is only my “GOG.com Manuals” directory.
Step 6: Tap on the File you Want to Transfer to iBooks
Your files from your PC or Mac should now be visible (there will also be a file called prepros-6.config, ignore that). Tap on the PDF you want to open the PDF in Safari:
Step 7: Tap the Open in iBooks Button
The PDF will render in the Safari window. A couple of buttons will also appear at the top of the PDF which will allow you to transfer the PDF into your iBooks library. If the buttons aren’t visible tap the PDF page to make them reappear. Tap the Open in iBooks button:
Step 8: Enjoy your eBook on your iPad!
The iPad should automagically switch to iBooks and your PDF/ebook will appear on your shelves. You can keep transferring books, or, if you are done, close out of Safari and exit Prepros on your computer. The book is now permanently on your iPad.
I know this seems like a lot of steps, but I want to be thorough. In this age of command line interfaces, detailed tutorials are hard to come by.
P.S. If you like Prepros, please buy it. It is one of the only shareware programs I have ever bought and I use it every single day as a Web developer.
Sleazy revenge movie with a heavy dose of mid-eighties fashion cheese. This could be a much higher rated movie but it handles the violence against its women characters in with a tone that suggests titillation rather than horror. It’s completely off. The final revenge scenes are actually handled very well (despite Linda Blair’s terrible performance).
I really did not like this movie at all. I was really excited to watch it. The still frames I saw beforehand looked awesome. Unfortunately, most of the movie is barely in-focus close-ups and mumbled dialogue. The plot is largely incoherent and the aforementioned mumbling doesn’t help. None of this is a show stopper, but, on top of all that, it’s just boring. A sad attempt at being artsy. I hope Mandy is better.
