During my studies I have managed to create some games for several different reasons.  Most of the reasons were to learn a specific language or to learn new skills in that particular language. The first game I ever produced was a clone of master mind. I had created the game for my A-level practical project. I developed the game using the then antic Turbo Pascal; not sure how you would describe it now.

I had even developed a simple AI for the game so that it could have a single player mode. However, it was intended mainly for multiplayer support. Obviously I did not build any network support into the game.

I have built clones of many games. I decided to build clones and not original games for two reasons:

• No unique idea for a game (well at least anything feasible).
• Developing clones is the best way to learn basic and advanced game development techniques.

I have developed games on machines of all kind each with their unique challenges. One of my funniest projects involved developing a map for Enemy Territory. The map used the Sliema Balluta front as the war zone where the allies and axis team battled each other for gold. The map involved using a tank to blow up the doors of Ballutta church to gain access to the gold. This involved building a map which was capable of running on a Celerons which had 256mb of RAM and looking good on dual core computers with a stunning 512mb of ram.

I have even developed a game for my Symbian mobile. The game, named Speed Ball, was a single player version of pong. Imagine your pong paddle stuck in a 3 sided room. The object of the game was to keep the ball in this room. Every time the ball bounces off the paddle you get a point. The more points you get the faster the ball moves. Also once you get a high score the ball also stops travelling in a straight line. The game also had an online high score system.

Anyway now to the reason why I decided to write this article. If you want to start developing games I suggest you start making clones. Clones will allow you to learn the basic skills you will need to develop more complicated games. Each of these games come with their own set of problems.

One might ask what you can learn from developing a Pong clone.  From developing Pong you will learn how to make graphics move on screen and how to update the screen. You will also be required to create a very basic AI and/or how to make a game multiplayer. One can then start adding advanced features to this game; such as developing a network enabled multiplayer system, etc, etc.

The list below shows the games (starting from the simplest to create and finishing off with the most challenging) that any budding game developer should really consider making:

• Tic Tac Toe – Simplest game to create and hence why the perfect starting point. This game involves very basic graphics and user interface development. What great about this game is that the user can really experiment with developing AI. One can create a very simple AI (random play or simply an AI that always blocks a winning move) to an unbeatable AI (MinMax tree to scripted moves).
• Who wants to be a millionaire? – User interface important in this. Also can be modified so that it works online. Developer has to decide on how to store and access the questions. A simple data file can be used but features such as downloading new questions from online and allowing users to contribute new questions into the game.
• Pong – Simple game to create. Allows you to create your first game engine. Teaches you to take user controls into consideration and graphics. Many AI possibilities and has room to grow as I explained before.
• Tetris
• Pacman
• Bomberman
• Mario
• Overhead shooter

As for a starting language anything really will suffice. Flash would make developing the graphics easier but I would recommend either C++, Java or C#. Using these languages you can learn skills which can be applied any almost any other language. The skills you will gain from using flash will not be easily transferred to other environments but Flash is a very powerful tool to develop games in. Most games online are created using flash and flash does run on all computers and most mobile devices (apart from the flash hating Apple products).

It seems that placing your hard drive in the freezer and then taking it out and plugging it into your PC. Will give you a window where the drive will function correctly and you can take advantage of this and recover the data you require.

I ended up reading a few stories about people who were putting their HD in the freezer to help fix it long enough to be able to recover their data. I guess that by doing this, some metal parts in the HD could contract, putting back in place defective parts, and making everything work again for a few minutes.

Now most of you are saying poppy cock (not sure if that’s how you spell it but I will try not to swear on the site) but it seems to be true. Remove your hard drive and place it in a zip lock bag to prevent condensation getting into the drive. I would place it in two zip lock bags to protect it further. After an hour or two remove the drive from its cold cold grave and plug it into your computer. If you can access the drive, hurry up and recover the data. This is only a temporary solution.

I think the longer you leave it the freezer the better because the drive would get cold. It seems that leaving it in overnight might you a working drive for a whole 20 minutes. So next time your drive fails and you need the data think of using this idea. Either way the drive is dead and there is nothing left to lose.

Others use Google using some basic but not well known definitions one can search for files. I usually use Usenet to download all my files due to its speed. However the major flaw with these systems is that there is no way to preview the song. In Ares there was once a feature that allowed you to preview the song. However you would have had to download part of the MP3 to preview it.

Nowadays we use YouTube for a lot of our music needs. There are even websites which allow you to create a virtual music library online using YouTube music videos. However, with this system you need to have access to the internet to listen to your songs. In Malta we do have 3G but the data charges are so high it is not an option for most. Either way you would like to hear your music on your basic MP3 player and in your car. Using YouTube you can see the video and decide if you want to make a MP3 or not from it.

In the program I created all you need to do is enter the web address of the video you are viewing on YouTube and select a file name and save location for your MP3 and allow the program to do its magic. It will automatically download and convert the video for you into a MP3. This MP3 then can be played on any MP3 player.

The program I created is not unique in anyway but I believe it is the simplest to use. My inspiration was my father. He wanted some new MP3s and he gave me a list of songs to download for him. Hopefully now he will use this program instead of giving me a list. So inspiration was my laziness. The best ideas come out of one man’s laziness.

I decided to place the file online here for all to use. Be warned that I developed the program over two days and it hasn’t really been tested completely debugged so if errors appear keep that in mind. I might release updates for the program so like this you have to stay coming to my site

To use this program you need to download the zip file (here) and just extract it somewhere on your computer. The program should be easy enough to use. Here are the steps:

1. Open the application. The program you need to open is “YouTube Music Pirate.exe” (the pirate skull with headphones).
2. Select a YouTube video you want to download as a MP3. The link should look something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqz5dbs5zmo
3. Copy this link into the program. The link should go in the top text box (“YouTube Video Link”).
4. Press the button “Save As”. Select a folder where you want to save your MP3 and also the name of the MP3.
5. Select the quality of the YouTube video you wish to use and the quality of the created MP3.
6. Press the button “Download and Convert” and wait for the program to inform its done.
7. Enjoy your new MP3.

If you run into any errors or problems either leave a comment on this page or contact me directly so I can fix the program.

Download YouTubeMusicPirate.

However, this will not be the last of your expenses if you want to use your newly purchased 3D television to watch something in 3D. The owe so powerful manufacturers make you buy an infrared emitter to synchronize the expensive standalone active shutter glasses. If you are buying a Sony 3D LCD set you can buy the emitter for around $55 and one set of active shutter glasses will put you back $133.

That means that if you have a family of four you are going to need four sets glasses that means you have to add $532 to the price of your new television set. These glasses would require batteries which means more charging and more batteries around the house. Well at least wireless electricity because mainstream.

So now do you have all the equipment? Nope. You are going to need some kind of 3D source to connect to your TV. Your TV won’t make normal television 3D for you. At least I haven’t heard of that tech and I doubt it would work well. You will need to buy a 3D capable bluray player. However there aren’t many 3D movies on bluray are rare.

3D broadcasts are also starting up in Europe (SKY UK). However, it is illegal to receive Sky UK in Malta so that destroys that little glimmer of hope. Even if you do receive Sky UK you would need the HD package and maybe a special set box made by Sky. I haven’t heard of any other 3D channels starting up.

So what’s left? A computer set up with the right equipment to send a 3D signal to a LCD. This was option is my favourite out of them all (however watching football live in 3D does sound interesting). Using a computer you can download 3D movies, play games in 3D and YouTube have already started testing streaming 3D videos online. The possibilities are endless with computers. This 3D technology has been around for a while for computers but the tech never really caught on.

NVidia now released some hardware that will allow your computer to be connected to any 3D set. This makes owning a 3D television set more plausible but still I wouldn’t recommend someone purchasing one of these new television sets.

They are working on a television which would work with passive shutter glasses (the glasses you get at the cinema). These glasses are much cheaper to purchase and require no batteries. However, in the near future they will create a television that would require no glasses.

WARNING SCIENCE!

We wear glasses to watch movies/games in 3D because each lens blocks a certain image. These glasses would make each eye see a slightly different image. These different images allow our brain to see the 2D image as a 3D wonder world. Here is a picture which better explains this concept.

The televisions they are working on use the a technology which we use to play with when we were young. You would have an image and by looking at it at a different angle the image would change. By making this angle smaller they are managing to allow the eyes to see different images. However at the moment the television only has a small view angle making it not ideal for living rooms. There are other advancements in 3D televisions but I won’t go into them all.

SCIENCE OVER!

Now image combining these television sets, with head tracking like the video below and with other technology such as project Natal. Quickly some get me a patent office.

If you really want 3D television the tech is available but be prepared for an expensive trip and lack of content. If you do get a 3D set I suggest you get a computer attached to the TV with the approiate hardware so that you will have more content and be able to play some games in 3D.

Paper rater is a free online tool which analyzes your writing and offers feedback on your grammar, spelling and more. For anyone who knows me will understand how I found and how much I start using this tool.

The tool is completely fool proof. Just paste the text you want analyzed into the text field and select what type of content it is (research paper, personal narrative, essay, book report, speech/presentation, short story, movie review, and other) and submit it for review. Within seconds, Paper rater generates a report that analyzes several aspects of your submission.

The tool looks at your grammar and spelling, but it also gives feedback on your writing style and choice of words. It can also suggest replacement word and phrases by just right clicking on the highlighted words in the generated reports. Paper rater also detects plagiarism by comparing the content you submit with the published online content to see if there are any similarities. This won’t be caused if you use the proper citations in your text.

Paper Rater is a solid tool for double-checking your work as you prepare your next speech or presentation. Also helps the would be blogger who’s English is quite up to scratch.

In a previous blog post I mentioned that an user should keep data backed up all the time and I mentioned tools to help the user to accomplish this regular back up. So the last part that needs to be addressed is the installing of software.

When formatting a computer the process is practically all automated. The user just has to start the process and then they can enjoy a nice cup of tea while the operating system formats and installs the new OS. Once complete the user needs to install the software they usually do. To accomplish this faster and easier there is a new service called Ninite.

This service allows you to select some software you wish to install. Once selected you download a small executable which will then download all the selected software and also install them for the user. During this process the computer is completely usable but feel free to get more tea.

The service contains software which I gurantee you would install on any system, such as Chrome, Firefox, Skype, Messenger, VLC, iTunes, Winamp, Adobe Reader, and many more.

For all you who have been putting off formatting your computer you now have one less excuse on why not to do it.

Google Buzz brings social networking into Gmail and the rest of the Google applications. Whether or not you are into the whole social networking scene (twitter or facebook), Buzz offers a different approach to this scene.

Buzz’s key features are:

• Automatic friend lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail). This caused a lot of controversy since people were finding friends in their friend list which they did not want.
• “Rich fast sharing” combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed. It also includes a full sized photo browsing utility.
• Public and private Buzzs.
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates, like facebook does, Buzz features emails that update dynamically with all the Buzz threads).
• “Recommended Buzz” puts friend of friend content into your stream, even if you’re not acquainted. The system learns what you would be interested in overtime through user feedback.

Buzz lets you share photos, video, links to web sites, and other content from all over the web with your friends and your friends of friends.

The video below has been created by Google to better explain the purpose and the features of Buzz.

Official Google Blog Post regarding Buzz.

Being able to download movies and television programs is a must for the enthusiastic DVD night people. Being the president of this club I decided to show you the easiest way to obtain these episodes. All you have to worry about is preparing snacks and the ice cold beer.

There is a freeware program called “ted” (torrent episode downloader). Ted can find episodes of any TV show you like to watch. Just add your favourite shows to ted and it will search for the newest episodes and downloads them for you. Ted uses bit torrent and RSS technology to get you the newest episodes as fast as possible.

With ted you still need a bit torrent client to download the torrent files but this program will allow you to find the torrent files easily and quickly. Also it allows you to discover new shows to watch. Once you add a show to your list it will tell you when a new show comes out and gives you the torrent file for it.

My favourite bit torrent programs are Azureus and uTorrent.

Now people can stop coming to me and asking me for my files. You know who you are

Malcolm X fought for human rights of Black Americans. Malcolm M (myself) is bringing entertainment to all.

The site uses wordpress where I was creating a theme and some custom widgets and applications. I wasn’t working on it when the Internal server error occurred. I immediately went onto Google for the solution, what any experienced trouble-shooter would do. My search immediately lead to a problem between wordpress and my webhost, GoDaddy Shared Windows hosting.

I started by removing all the plug-ins as some people did to fix the problem. This had no effect on the error. I changed the theme name to try force wordpress to use the default theme and Houston we still have a problem. I even resorted to emailing customer support of GoDaddy but they were as helpful as most customer support around the world. Completely useless.

After some thinking and debugging I noticed the web.config which in the subdirectory which I never created. I decided to rename it and presto the site was back up and running like nothing ever happened. Hopefully this little piece of information will find its way onto Google so that if someone has the same problem as I did would be able to notice and fix the problem quicker than I did. Since I wasted a few hours on this problem.

This problem occured on a site I am developing but I was worried that my site would crash too since I was using wordpress too. So it was very important I solved the problem just in case this site decided to bite the dust too. At least now I am more confident that I can fix the site quickly. I don’t want anyone not to be able to read my crazy thoughts for a day.

This is also my first HOW-TO or GUIDE post I have ever done in my life so you going to have to bear with me.

Backup, Update, and Clean

It’s the fun maintenance stuff that everyone loves and enjoys performing. Rather than working this into your routine you can make your computer maintain itself as an overnight task. Like this you have more fun time with your computer.

Backup your Precious Data

Everyone knows how important it is to back up your data, but most of us don’t. I have many times lost data at the most critical time. It seems that the hard drive actually knows when you need it the most and seems to pack up at that time. I hence decided not to save any appointments or deadline on the PC and also my computer thinks it’s still 1999. Though now it might suffer from the Y2K bug.

Backing up can take a long time; especially if you are doing it the proper way and backing up to the Cloud (online). There are many online backup services:

• Google DOCS recently allowed users to upload files with any extension. This means that anyone with a Google account has 1GB of free storage here.
• For people who need more storage (and don’t want to pay for it) can be a little cunning and use Gmail to back up their data. Using the power of Google I found these two links which explain how to do this [link1, link2]
• Finally there are legit services which allow you to back up to an online site such as Mozy. They provide you 2GB storage with their free service.

Lifehacker, a site I often visit, listed the five best backup tools you can use here.

Defrag your hard drive

This is quite self-explanatory. For a hard drive to run at its best it needs to be defrag. So either schedule it or just start it before you go to bed. It’s important so deal with it. The time between defrags depends on how much you use your computer (download, create, move and delete files). Once a week to once every two weeks should be enough.

Update your computer

Updates are important. They not only fix bugs and security loop holes but they (mostly) increase the performance of the PC. Windows have made it quite easy for users to download and install updates automatically so again I won’t go any deeper into this subject. I don’t know how to use MACs so you guys are on your own.

Other tasks

Antivirus, s**t cleaning, and any other general PC clean-up. The best time to run these tasks is at night. Nowadays, most antiviruses have built-in scheduling options so this should be a no brainer. For people that use CCleaner (great piece of freeware) How-To-Geek made a great tutorial on how to set up CCLeaner to run automatically.

Downloading and Encoding

Your PC should now be running fast and also be backed up on the mythical cloud. It’s now time to have some fun with your PC. Probably the most popular reason to leave your PC running overnight is to download or convert some videos.

Downloads

If you download using BitTorrent you should use a client such as uTorrent which allows the user to shut down the computer once the file has downloaded. For other downloads DownThemAll also supports shutting down your computer after your downloads are complete. Downloading while you are asleep is very popular because it allows you to use youtube to its top speed when you are awake and the next morning you will find more entertainment on your computer after a night of downloading. Also in Malta your download limit is not effected at this time.

Video Encoding

After you download your favourite TV shows and movies you might want to watch them on that cheap mp4 player you purchased online which only plays WMV and your downloads are DIVX/XVID. Also you might want to rip one of your DVDs to back it up on your computer or just watch it on that Chinese mp4 player. Nowadays all the programs you require are free and a list of the best ripping tools can be found here. Nowadays all the programs have an option to switch off the PC when the encoding process is complete. By performing this overnight you can better utilize your computer during the day but also have entertainment ready for your bus trip. In my case the traffic jam which is caused by the Nadur Carnival in Gozo. You need some good entertainment while the person behind you is ramming you…

Some other ideas

When you are downloading your CPU is barely doing any work, even when performing a backup, etc. The only task which is CPU intensive is the video encoding process. While your CPU is falling asleep you can donate those extra CPU cycles to a worthy cause. There are programs which use your CPU when the screen saver is active to solve some very hard problems. These are known as distributed computing tools. The most popular of these tools is Folding@home (protein folding) but there are other worthy causes (BOINC, World Community Grid and LHC@home (large hadron collider)).

You can set your computer to go at a specific time using this free program. This will allow you to start watching a movie on your computer and if you fall asleep your computer will join you once the movie is over.

Finally, just switch off the computer. You won’t only be saving money but also the environment. It’s very unlikely that any of the above tasks would require a whole night of processing so you should set up your computer to shut down at a certain time.