SatAM Game

After playing the Love Hina flash game, I decided it would be a really neat idea to create a game like this, but with Sonic SatAM characters. I would likely have some humor and seriousness mixed into it. Like all RPG games, you would have battles which would increase your experience. You would be able to help the freedom fighters out by going to Robotropolis and fighting your way on missions to score experience. You could attract Sally and Bunny for sure, but I'll have to try and come up with some others to make the game have more possibilities. I don't know that Lupe would fit in, but we'll see. You could also make the girls really angry at you if you wanted.

The game would take advantage of the music material created for DiC while the show was in development. I don't know if I'd borrow art from the show or not, but I would definitely have new art made for the game. I think this would be something that FUS people would like to help out with. Of course I would have to work through the lazy people to get to the ones who are serious about helping. I'm not sure how I would ask them to help out if I decided to be open to getting FUSers active.

The fun of making a game like this is having many possibilities. It makes people want to go back and play again. I'm intersted in hearing what anyone thinks of this.

College Work

I'm sorry for a being a little slower than usual with the blog posts. This semester is almost over in college, and I'm really putting out what I need to put out in the end. I haven't had the greatest semester, so I'm just trying to get decent grades. I fear what I may be getting in a two of my classes. It's almost over, so it won't be long before I have more time to update again.

Although a couple days ago, I got addicted to dating simulations! It sounds a little silly at first maybe, but it was actually fun. I played both Love Hina and Galaxy Angel. It's not quite as realistic as the real thing, but seeing how many points I could score and seeing all the possibilities was really interesting. And best of all, these games are for guys for the most part, so they're not really sissy-like.

I also got my car back from the garage. They told me they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I paid my bill, but I still think there's something not right with it. My dad will likely drive it around the mountain area for a while to really see if it slips any like I think it is. If he finds something, then I'll send it back to the garage and have them take a closer look. This sort of thing happens sometimes... it has problems for the owner, but when the mechanics try to reproduce the problem, it seems to have gone away. My dad once in a while has this trouble at his shop, so it's understandable. But the main thing is to get it fixed if there's a problem. So we'll soon see.

Oh and all my files on Shadowsoft-Games are completely gone. It's sort of a long story, but I have to try and rebuild my file collection again. I should have backed up some things. I probably would have, except my old computer only had about 300MB of free space left. My new computer was the perfect opportunity to back things up, but I guess I had my mind elsewhere. It's a lesson to learn I suppose. So those pictures of ProSonic for example are gone. If anyone has copies, I'd love to have them. It's easier than running the engine and tools and taking them all over again. There were about 11 or so pictures I think. I still have the ProSonic source code and such on my computer though, so no worries there!

Download Problems

Many people attempted to download my outline, and they couldn't get it working. I thought at first that perhaps the link was wrong. But with further examination, I realize now my entire home directory on the Shadowsoft-Games server is gone! I have absolutely no clue what's going on, but I'm working on finding the answer. In the meantime, you can grab the file here instead.

ProSonic Partial Outline

I have created a partial outline for the ProSonic engine. Right now the only thing I have covered is the object node manager. This handles how much memory should be used for objects. I would love to have some feedback on this. Tell me if it's clear, confusing, needs some work, anything.

You can download the outline here. You will need a PowerPoint viewing program. For Microsoft Windows users, you can use this one.

Keep in mind that the outline isn't complete. This is more or less a test to see how well I can explain the inner workings of the engine. I will add plenty more to the outline, but this is a start.

The Truck From Hell

Okay, last night my brother called me at home. He said asked me if I could come and get him. I asked why, and we said he was broke down. So I got my wallet and keys and came after him. I got there, and a good friend of ours was behind him and said he'd give him a push to get him out of the road. Donny (our friend) looked at the truck and figured it must be locked. Everytime my brother would try to start it, it would hit hard and wouldn't turn over. So he checked the oil and found none.

I went to the Sheetz store and got three quarts of 10W40 oil and some gas in the gas can. I brought it to my brother and they filled the truck. They tried and tried to get the truck started and it wouldn't budge. He called our dad, and he was pretty mad. My dad got there and looked at it. He said "looks like you blew her up again". Then he said "there's not much else you can do, call a tow truck". My dad didn't stick around and simply went back home.

See, my brother had this problem before from not getting oil in it. It wasn't too long ago actually, and he had to pay a lot of money to fix the transmission. So it looks like he's got the same problem again possibly.

He finally got hold of someone who could tow the truck. My brother stupidly had an idea of simply coasting it down the road to the house (since it is about a quarter mile). He didn't do it because Donny told him not to, but I thought "duh, if you don't make it, you're going to be stuck again, but this time there won't be any room on the side of the road to get out of the road". My brother isn't bright as my dad and I both know. I love my brother, but he's 30 years old. It's time he grew up!

New Study

Here's something different for a change. Check out this article by Inc.com:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192435,00.html.

Apparently, a better economy yeilds more heart attacks. It kind of seems silly at first, but the reason they state makes perfect sense. I find it really intersting because I would have never guessed this connection would have ever existed. I think it's worth a read!

On another note, ProSonic is still moving along, and I am still working on my cover of "Jump". I'm just balancing my hobbies more. I am devoting a little bit to everything. I will have some more news on ProSonic though, but things are just moving at a slower pace right now.

I also have Macromedia Flash now and am trying to learn it little by little. So maybe when I know enough, I can put out a movie for all my readers to watch. I like to entertain people, and perhaps I can do that with Flash. It'll be something I've never tried before. I'm up to the challenge!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a good Easter! The food was pretty good, although I didn't eat as much as I usually do. However, they did have this creamy lemon pie which I love! Most of the day when I wasn't eating, I was watching TV. I watched several episodes of SpongeBob, a little bit of news, and Dirty Harry. I realized something while watching Dirty Harry -- Clint Eastwood in that movie had the same hairdoo as Huey Lewis! Then my grandmother and aunt were sort of pestering me to leave because they were ready to go home. I was disappointed because I wanted to finish watching Dirty Harry, but I just bucked up and took them home. But it wasn't a bad Easter.

Well I am now questioning the life of that game that will be created using the ProSonic engine. I said I wouldn't be releasing my engine publically until my partner's game is released. However, I am now in question if that game will ever be finished. I don't have the details yet, but I'll update my blog when I know more. If the game is canned, I will still continue my engine. So hopefully nobody will question the life of ProSonic, because it will move forward with or without a game.

I have some good news about my "Jump" recording that I'm working on. This will be the first song of mine to feature a real guitar! If it'll have real percussion or not, I'm not sure yet. I'm expecting this to be one of my very best recordings. There's still more work to be done to it, but I really think people will like it when I finish it.

Going To Try Another Song

It seems to me that most people don't believe All Shook Up is my best work. I figured since so many people liked So In Love, they might like the new song I put out. I have gotten positive feedback, but it's definitely not to the same degree. And a friend of mine on AIM told me to never do the song again! I wasn't offended because he said it nicely, and at least he was honest. Perhaps it's because the song is more laid back. I don't have a voice like Elvis, but I thought it was a neat song to try anyway.

I am working on another one though. I'm working to really perfect it and make it sound nice. I'm sure everyone will recognize it -- "Jump" from Van Halen. I love that song. I don't know when it'll be done though. It's been a long time since I last did a pop song ("Live It Up" was the last one, and that song really just 'bordered' traditional pop).

On another note, I must say waxing sucks! I have been waxing my dad's trailer lately, and I can't hardly use my arm by the end of the day. Wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off... hard work! It needs about 2 or 3 more coats after I finish the first one I'm putting on. I never want to wax anything in my life again!

Oh, and I'm curious about Flash. I know there are tools from Macromedia to make Flash movies, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly what is involved in making them. Do I have to know a language, or is it as easy as 'point-and-click'? If someone could give me information on this, it would be great. I'm sort of interested in doing some Flash movies, but I just want to know what I'd be up against before actually getting any software.

New Song Recording

I wanted to test my new computer with sound recording, so I did one today. I have the hardest time getting it into a 44.1kHz format without having speed issues. It didn't make sense to me. But eventually I got it into a working MP3 format by going around the traditional methods. You can download the song here. Try to see if you recognize it without looking at the name of the song!

Recording Time!

After many hours of trying, I finally got my computer ready to record! There's still one software program I would like to have on here, but I can do without it for now. I am very happy this is a brand new computer, because I can actually record multiple tracks with effects enabled for playback, 24-bit resolution, 88.2 or 96 kHz, and still have plenty of CPU power left. I can finally record, and I can do it without mixing several mixdowns into one.

I also went out and bought me a new MIDI interface (Yamaha UX16) because my old one wasn't compatible with Windows XP and connected to a DB-9 serial port which my new computer doesn't even have. My new MIDI interface works great, except I'm disappointed that USB MIDI interfaces under Windows seem to have problems with timing, which I didn't know until after I bought it. This is a bummer for me because it means I'll have to live without playing with System Exclusive messages. If you're going to get a MIDI interface, get one that connects to a serial port if your computer has a serial port!

Tired

I was tired today. I got about 4 hours or sleep, and I had to really make myself get up to go to work. I looked in the mirror, and I looked horrible! I've never seen my eyes so dark before. I'm sure some people would probably wonder if I did drugs or something.

I've been promoting some ideas of mine for FUS if Sonique turns the site over to me. I have really gotten off to a rough start though because a lot of what I've said has been misinterpretted. This is the kind of thing that used to happen to me all the time when I was a frequent visitor of Simon Wai's forums. It's never really been so bad at FUS, but this time it sort of blew up in my face. I kept my cool the entire time, even though I felt like telling them what I was really thinking at the time. Eventually I had the topic locked to calm things down. I'll reopen it soon with a new plan to replace to the old one that a couple people took overboard. I'm happy to at least have won the support of 3 people, and I'm hoping to win over more.

I'm very happy that The Sonic World has put up an article talking about my ProSonic engine. That's more exposure, and I'm happy about it. You can read the article here. I'm happy to have some more word getting out.

Dude, I Got A Dell!

Woohoo! My new computer is up and running, and I must say that this thing is a lot faster than the other two machines I worked with for years. I have transferred some of my stuff over to the new computer, but there's more to be done still. I have decided to keep the older machines though for when I need to test software on something old.

I've never actually tried DOS emulation under Windows XP until now. I must say that although it works, it's a little slow! I was expecting it to be a bit faster. Using Genecyst to play Sega Genesis games on my computer will never quite be the same again.

I finally got my car to the garage today. The transmission has been slipping real bad, so the dealership is going to look at it. I am praying it won't cost as much as it could potentially cost. The only thing I know is the longer I wait, the worse it gets. So I figured it was time to get something done about it. They won't be able to actually look at it until Monday though.

I have taken a break from writing my ProSonic game engine by the way. I will resume perhaps in a few days, possibly a week from now. Everyone needs a break once in a while. I have other hobbies besides programming, and music is one of them. As soon as I can find my "Sonar 2" CD, I can install the program and begin recording. I don't know where it is at the moment. Sometimes, I don't know where my head is either.

New Computer Coming

Alrighty, after 7 long years, I'm finally getting a new computer! I will still keep my two current computers because they are useful to testing programs for speed and such (which will be a big factor to test for with my ProSonic engine). The computer has been ordered and will arrive hopefully in a couple days. It's a Dell with these specifications:

- Pentium 4-HT at 2.8GHz (800MHz front-side bus)
- 512MB RAM (2 dimms)
- Windows XP Home Edition
- 80GB Hard Drive
- 12X DVD/CD writer
- Intel Extreme Graphics 2 IC

Now, I realize the Intel graphics chip isn't that great. From my understanding, it runs Doom 3 at about 5-6 fps. That's a drag because I wanted to finally get that game. Oh well, I will live. The computer at the very least is a heck of a lot better than both of my Pentium II machines.

I want to record a new song, but I have decided to wait for the new computer first. Most people probably don't realize how much of a pain it is to record on my fastest Pentium II machine -- I can mix about 5 tracks with effects, but after that, it drops out constantly because it can't keep up with the demand. So hopefully the new computer will solve that problem and allow me to get a new song out with more ease. I don't know what song I will do because there are too many I want to do. Plus I still need to get that instrumental version of my SatAM cover ready so Heart of Blue can sing on it.

That reminds me, check out his site at http://www.the-little-planet.com. He still has more to add to it, but he does have some interesting content there so far. I think it has the potential to become a good site.

A New Post! Yay!

First I must mention some changes to my proposed YM2612 plans for the ProSonic engine. Instead of 12 FM channels, I'm now going to support 16 (adding 2 to each emulated chip). This should work nicely for anyone who wants to produce Genesis-sounding music that has plenty of room to do what most people really want. I decided to write my own YM2612 emulation code. So far I've entered some values into some arrays in the code, but nothing too major. I'm hard-coding some of the calculations that will be involved in order to keep the code fast.

My day today has been pretty swell so far. I had economics, my favorite class. I had Java, and my teacher was back after being out for a week due to surgery. I got out of that class early, meaning I have an extended lunch break (woohoo!). I will be headed to work in about 15 minutes from the very moment that I am writing this. I'll get to take pictures of parts using my camera, and those pictures will go on eBay. They figured it would be a good idea to put some of the parts on the net so they could increase their revenue.

I'm still listening to "Workbench Workout" from my "Sonic Boom" CD. Gosh that is such a great song. I never understood why most people preferred the Japan/Europe Sonic CD music over the American version. The American has more of the pop/rock/r&b edge to it that fills my soul (no pun intended). I can't figure out why anyone would put the Japanese dance music over the American pop music.

Oh and I think grey is a nifty color! Okay, late April Fools... yeah that was lame, but I didn't play a joke this year and figured I'd say something stupid to make up for it. Don't everyone get excited at once.