Monday, March 22, 2010

Mega Man 10 DLC


Bass and 1 Special Stage will become available for download on April 5. Endless Level and 2 Special Stages will be available April 26.

Click here to read the details on the DLC.

But what's really interesting is that the screenshot show new weapons being used by Mega Man--in normal mode (at least there are no timers). How will these stages be implemented? What about these 3 weapons?

Luckily, hackers found the weapons, but implementation is sketchy at best. The weapons are the Mirror B., S. Crusher, and B. Cracker. Here is a video demonstrating the weapons.

After searching through youtube videos and forum posts, I can confirm a few more things about the DLC. Bass fuses with Treble, and can fly around and fire 3-shot bursts like the Magma Bazooka. You can buy shock guards with Bass, and Treble adapters to act like Eddie and Beat. Reggae runs his shop.

Endless Mode continues to be shrouded in mystery.

Cave Story Wii Launch Party



Today is finally the day. We've been "covering" Cave Story since November 16, 2008, and now, finally, one can purchase it online.

In case you aren't familiar with Cave Story, you can check out my review of the free PC version.

The Wii version costs 1200 points. Some people think this is too much, however, remember a few things:

1. Nintendo decides the price of all WiiWare software.
2. The game includes all of the "DLC," so you won't have to shell out any more cash.
3. The game includes updated audiovisuals.

The download should be available around 11:00 a.m. Central time. Without launching into another meta-review, this is all the info I have.

Anyone else downloading the game?

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Game of Life: New Spaceship


The Game of Life is a cellular automaton developed by John Horton Conway in 1970. It consists of a grid, in which each grid square can be either alive or dead. The "game" proceeds in turns, in which each square is calculated to be either alive or dead based upon its neighbors. Conway's rules are as follows:

1. If a living cell has fewer than 2 (live) neighbors, it dies.
2. If a cell has 4 neighbors (or more) it dies.
3. If a living cell has 2 or 3 live neighbors, it survives the round.
4. If an empty cell has exactly 3 neighbors, a cell is created.

From these simple rules, great complexity can be generated. Conway's Game is even Turing complete, meaning that it is possible to build a computer inside of a (very large) Game of Life simulation using logic gates and "gliders."

Gliders and spaceships are special constructions in the Game of Life, which, typically, keep their general shape and move in a direction over time. Today, I believe, I discovered a new one.

I was using a extremely complex pre-programmed pattern and tossing random gliders at it. This spaceship emerged, and I luckily saved it.

This "spaceship" is more properly known as a "rake" because of how it sends out gliders while also moving forward. The cool think about this one, however, is that it sends out TWO streams of gliders at perpendicular angles, producing a V-shape. If it hasn't been discovered before, I think it should be called a "V-rake." I have not seen anything like this online, especially in a pattern so small. Some very cool patterns are able to be generated from these things, and I hope that, if this discovery is original, that the cellular automaton community benefits from it.

Here is one giant battleship I made using only the V-rake.



If interested, you should download Golly, the best cellular automaton simulator I have ever seen. Just reproduce the first picture in the program and have fun! Golly also comes with some samples impressive creations that will, I promise, blow your mind.

Because I'm not sure if this discovery is, in fact, novel, this post could either be a terrible introduction to cellular automata or a significant mathematical find-- the suspense is killing me.



After experimenting a little, I modified this raker/spaceship into a "puffer" or "steamer" which is a shapeship that, unlike a raker, leaves a messy trail of debris behind it. Pictures below.



Sunday, March 7, 2010

Your World of Text: RPG Town



An RPG-style Town drawn on the main page (X:6, Y:6) of yourworldoftext.com. You can edit it if you want, expand it, or mutate it. If anything interesting happens to the town, I will update this post.

Update:



The first visitor enhanced the town with some roguelike denizens and merchandise.



But then it was destroyed. City moved to X:20, Y:-10.

Update 2:







Wednesday, March 3, 2010

COMPUTER


COMPUTER is an ANSII ZZT game. You are the INTRUDER.EXE and your mission is to hack through a giant bio-computer. You begin your quest in the system's BIOS, and you break through the system defenses and disable the Motherboard and CPU. Prepare for surreal computer-themed action adventure!

ZZT is a 1991 game designed by by Tim Sweeney. However, the game also comes with a built-in game creation engine, allowing users the ability to make games and quests easily. COMPUTER represents my first attempt at a ZZT game, but I hope that people enjoy it.

If you already have ZZT on your computer, then you can simply download the .ZZT file.

Otherwise, I have created a ZZT package, which you can download here. This .zip includes all the usual ZZT release, plus my game, computer.zzt. Make sure you select COMPUTER, under worlds, to play the game. After you're done, enjoy the other classic original ZZT adventures!