Owner: PrimeScape URL:http://danielprimed.com Join Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 18:52:31 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: My blog, about life, games, design and photography. Always fresh and interesting. Site statistics:Click here
A title to end all titles 2007-05-02 15:18:45 Most listened – C’mon People(we’re doin’ it now!) - Richard Ashcroft
Most played – Mario and Luigi Partners in Time(DS)
G’day fellow gamers, designers, photographers, bloggers and/or Space Cowboys. It’s time again for me to dispel some nonsensical jib jab about the last few weeks of my life into this rectangular box. I hope that got you excited as I couldn’t think of a thought provoking intro.
You’ll be glad to know that my hard advertising efforts for PrimeScape has paid off and the site has received a good amount of fresh hits this month. Yay. The feed subscribers have also increased too.
Lemme quickly run thru the past few weeks. I’m still getting plenty of hours at work so my weekends have been busy with that. Despite this I have still managed to catch up with friends a number of times, which is great. I also seem to be running into people more recently this week.
Due to the Anzac day off last week it meant that after Monday I onl
Bargain Hunting for videogames 2007-04-25 15:14:26
Yes, nothing beats old school Super Castlevania IV art!
Don’t you just love it when you go out on an early morning and find a quality game for a cheap price? It just feels that much more rewarding when some of that hard earned cash stays in your wallet. Now I haven’t been out looking for bargain for sometime now but that’s not to say that I don’t have a few tricks up my sleeve to help out you fortunate readers.
Rule 1 – Wait until the time is right
If your buying thru your department stores then never, ever buy a game at full price, unless:
-you are mega rich
-you pre-order(and got a special deal)
-you pre-order despite no special deal
-you absolutely have to buy the game then and there
Now, the trick is to be patient and wait until the game is going out at a reduced line. Nowadays the wait isn’t all that long. You can find new release games drop $30 within 2/3 weeks of release.
The other thing to wait for is sales. Now department stores generally cy Read more:Bargain
, videogames
In and out of focus 2007-04-18 02:55:43
Most played – Yoshi Touch n Go
Hello friends and followers, I have finally uploaded all of my old tutorials so rest assure that you won’t be snowed in like that again. ^_^ From now on its back to how it should be, abeit with a few differences in style.
Now that the blog is at its prime(content wise) I decided that I should probably try and advertise the blog a little as the content is great, I just need readers. So thats what I’ve been doing. So far it seems to have paid off, my subscribers and hits have risen quite a way.
So the plan from now on is to make my blog much more interesting so that people will actually stick around. So you’ll notice the improvement of quality in entries from now on. So lets get started.
Holidays
The holidays have been fine although kinda different, I haven’t seen much of my friends but have been spending more time with the family. The first weekend we had easter which was great. Chris bought me one of those 100s and 1000s eggs.
Timeline Control 2007-04-17 07:38:26 Assumed Knowledge: Basic creation of symbols and general Flash interface
Concepts Covered: Control
ling the movement in the Flash timeline through buttons
Open up Flash and make 2 buttons, one which is labeled Play and the other one Pause. On a new layer create some sort of animation that lasts for at least 10 frames. Extend the bottom layers length in the timeline so that it is the same as the animation.
Add the following code to the Play button:
on (release){
play();
}
And add this code to the Pause button.
on (release){
stop();
}
Let’s look at some of the code. on (release) means that once the button is released. The { finishes the statement what follows it on the next line tells the program what will happen once the button is released. play() makes the program play the animation in the timeline and stop() stops the animation in the timeline. The ; ends the command. The final { closes off the code.
Now when you test your movie you can click Pause to Pause the animation and Play to Read more:Timeline
Motion Guides in Flash MX 2007-04-17 07:35:07 Assumed knowledge: Basic Flash
MX interface, able to motion tween, knowledge of layers and movieclips
Concepts covered: Tweening with motion guides
Ever wanted to amake a tween go in the direction that you want and not in a straight direction? I feel your pain. This tutorial will teach you the basics on how to tween movieclips in and direction that you want through motion guides.
To start first choose a picture of your choice and then convert it into a movieclip. Right click on the layer of the movieclip and select “Add motion guide”.
On the motion guide layer draw a line with the line tool or the pen tool if you want to be creative. Make sure that the line is all connected . On the movieclip layer right click several frames down the timeline(I chose 20 frames) and create a keyframe, then create a motion tween between the frames of the movieclip layer. Make sure that the guide layer lasts for the same time as the movieclip layer and has no keyframe at the end just a frame. With th Read more:Guides
, Motion
Inputting and Outputting variables 2007-04-17 07:14:23 Assumed knowledge: Basic Flash interface, experience with creating text fields and symbols
Concepts covered: Inputting variables, outputting variables and manipulating variables
Being able to manage variables in Flash is a very important skill for people wanting to get into actionscript. This tutorial goes through basic inputting and outputting of variables and manipulating them.
Load up Flash and create 2 static texts field spaced apart one that says “Input your name” and the other that says “Your name is”. Underneath the “Input your name” text create a blank input text field that has a border around it. You do this by selecting the show border around text option.
Stick the words namebox in the instance name box just under the type of text.
Under the “Your name is” text create a new dynamic text box. Make sure that the font colour is black so that you see it when you are outputting. Stick the word name under the variable heading; var.
Create a new button somewhere on
Following Cursor 2007-04-17 07:07:56 Assumed knowledge: Basic Flash Navigation, Object creation and Basic Actionscript knowledge
Concepts Covered: Commanding a movieclip to follow the X and Y values of your cursor
This is probably my favourite little Flash program that I have made. Its so simple, anyone can do it.
Load up Flash and create a movieclip with something clearly visible inside it. All that’s left now is to insert the code.
This is the code that you put into your movieclip.
onClipEvent(enterFrame){
this._x=_root._xmouse;
this._y=_root._ymouse;
}
Lets look at this code.
onClipEvent tells the program that ‘once an event happens in the movieclip then’. The condition in the brackets is that event. In this case once the current frame is entered. The { sets us up for the action which is about to occur when the frame is entered. ‘This’ is referring to the current movieclip which the code is in. ._x is referring to the x value. Equals sets the value to be the same as the other value. _ root._xmouse looks for t Read more:Cursor
, Following
Editing and Animating Text 2007-04-17 06:54:22
Assumed knowledge: Basic know how and usage of the Flash MX interface. Good use of basic tweening and symbol properties. Should know how to make a symbol.
Ever wanted to change the way that your text looks in Flash MX? Then make it animate and do cool effects? This tutorial goes through most of the common ways.
Editing Text
This is relatively simple and can be achieved through just playing around with the Text properties.
Firstly select the Text Tool
Then type any text that you want into the text field that you create. Try to keep the text field at the right length to avoid creating a new line. I chose to work with Raven.
Look down at the properties bar and make sure that the font is static text.
Okay now we have our text lets have a little play around with it. In the Text properties play around and choose a font that you like I chose Arial Rounded MT Bold. Chose the type of script, it is probably better to leave it as normal. Chose the A/V tool and space out the text.
My text no
Line Properties 2007-04-17 05:37:51 Assumed knowledge: Basic Flash interface
Concepts covered: How to create lines, line properties and line joining
This tutorial goes through everything to do with using lines in Flash MX.
To create a line select the Line tool then click on the stage, while holding down move your line in the direction that you want it to go and then release it.
When your line is on the stage you can move it by clicking on it then grabbing and dragging it. You can also change the curve in your line by selecting any part of the line when it displays the curve signal. Or increase/decrease the length of the line and rotate it by placing your cursor over the start or end of the line and then moving it when the symbol changes to a right angle.
You can draw another line and connect the two with the right angled cursor. With these techniques you can create many good line drawings in Flash.
When selecting your lines you can change their properties. Once your line/s are selected look at the Properties
bar and you
No brush Signature 2007-04-17 05:24:10
Assumed knowledge: Basic Photoshop skills, layers, blends and renders.
Concepts covered: Using a series of blends to create a good looking sig with no brushes
If your fairly new to Photoshop or are just sick of the same brush based sigs and want to try something new then this tutorial is for you. This tutorial will run thru how to make a sig such as this one:
To begin with create a new Photoshop document. I’d set the size to be around 350 by 100 or similar. Then open up the file which contains your render. The render doesn’t need to be anything special, I’d suggest something that has colours similar to the colours that you want in the final version. Press Cntrl + A or from the main menu Select>>All. Then press Cntrl + X or Edit>>Cut and then paste(Cnrl + V or Edit>>Paste) in the document with your sig. Adjust the render so that its it a nice position.
Its not required but I recommend that you clear any background that you have as it will appear in the final Read more:Signature
Hot Tequilla Brown 2007-05-10 03:59:14 Most listened - Black Capricorn Day - Jamiroquai
Most played - Mario and Luigi Partners in Time(DS)
This week I am feeling (continously) more happy with myself. I’ve managed to catch up with friends more so this week so I’m really pleased.
Last Friday Chris and I (finally) joined Cam at this games group that they have at Uni. I reckon that we’ll prolly do that for a few hrs every week from now on as we all had a great time. Really brings out that gaming pride in you.
Things have also clicked into place nicely at my other Uni. I really enjoy going there as I get on really well with the people in my program. Its such a friendly environment. Although this weeks homework is totally mind numbingly annoying. I can’t stop putting it off. Argh!
Beyond that I’ve managed to do a bit of every thing this week. I’ve finally sat down and started reading my cameras manual. Look forward to taking some happy snaps. I’ve also gather more materials to help Read more:Brown
User-friendly Tweaks 2007-05-19 15:54:32 Yay, my brother has finally finished doing the tweaks that I planned out a few weeks back. These tweaks are designed to make this place a bit more user friendly. Its still not perfect but its still the most significant update since the release.
Here’s a run down of what has changed:
-modified site header
-modified site title now: PrimeScape - Games, Design, Life
-Technorati +fav button in the right coloumn
-new contact page with a form
-new subscribe category with little RSS images
-Blogroll has gone underneath Subscribe
-Some stuff has been removed from Meta
-Search has been moved over to the archives area
-MyBlogLog widget has been added
-links are now easily distinguishable
-an Opera tag has been added to the bottom of the page
-Add RSS sentence added to each post
-huge RSS logo has been removed
-the gap between the title and the entry has been reduced
-the comment relish plugin has been installed, need to test that one
I’m very happy with this update as it should hopefu Read more:Tweaks
B-Side Photos Set A1 2007-05-24 19:44:10 I’ve had a pile of photos sitting on my laptop which I wasn’t really sure what to do with. So I decided to create a blog entry about them as I rarely blog about photography and probably should.
Basically I’ve sorted out my photos and will have a series of new and old photos to upload once I have got them ready for the web. Some of these new photos are taken on the new Alpha100. Some are just old photos that I overlooked.
But for the rest, they are a part of my first B-sides collection. Lets have a look.
This one is kinda strange as its a pretty unattractive picture. But I can’t help but be intrigued by the composition of the shot. I’m also very happy with the out of focus background. I managed to make the corner completely unnoticable.
I like the detail in the pattern of this one and also the curved reflections. It was much harder to frame than what I originally thought.
I took a pile of photos on Christmas Day. Mostly of decorations and they were all g
Home Improvement - The path to a better PrimeScape 2007-05-23 08:22:42 I’ve been working hard this year on PrimeScape and I’ve gotten to a point were I am happy with everything. I look at the site’s design and how attractive and user friendly it is and I am pleased.
What I have realised through trying to attract a larger readership is that people won’t stick unless there is something in it for them. And I don’t blame them, I’d do the same thing. This is where I am failing. I need to post better
articles more often to have a better appeal. Sure I do post some great stuff when I have the time but I normally don’t(have the time) and only post 1-2 articles a week. That number isn’t sufficient and neither is the quality of my posts.
So in order for PrimeScape to make a name for itself I’m going to have to start improving my blogging skills. So from this entry onwards I am going to do my best to post 3-4 entries a week.
I also want to take this time to say another 2 things. Firstly I’ve added a ‘ Read more:Home Improvement
, Improvement
How can one resist? - the PSP 2007-05-26 08:35:42 A part of me feels like a fool saying that its hard to resist
purchasing a PSP, the other half has already gone out and bought one. I have had a lot of faith in the console but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed with the quality of game releases in the last 6 months. There are enough titles on the system that would warrant me buying one, but only just.
Despite this unfortunate looming problems I can’t help but feel an urgency to buy for 2 main reasons. They are:
1)The two Syphon Filter titles
2)The Final Fantasy Tactics Remake
Now you see, I am a huge fan of the original Syphon Filter games as well as the (true) original FF Tatctics. They are a personal favourite and hold a place in the bottom of my heart.
Only last week at Sony’s Gamers Day Sony announced the 2nd Syphon Filter game for the PSP. Which is absolutely excellent. Supposively Gabe Logan’s partner Lian Xing has gone under cover and has been working against Gabe. This is crazy news!
Check out
This weeks linkies 2007-05-28 19:58:06 I’ve got a nice little collection of links that I want to point out this week. But before I jump into that I want to post my QQ number up which is: 2060504 QQ is an instant messaging program which allows Chinese people to communicate easily over the internet. Other than than that I don’t know much else about it.
Firstly I’d better link out to something I saw a few weeks back on The Spriter’s Resource which was something that I’ve been meaning to find for years. That is the facial animations in the codec conversation for the original Metal Gear Solid game.
As I have been madly working on an essay this week I managed to stumble upon Google Books which I haven’t used before. Basically you search for books and then can stream a preview of the book. I actually managed to find a book online and then get it at the Uni library later on.
Last week I bought a Playstation 2 at a great price down at Harvey Norman(I’ll blog about this later). Now I man
Playing Console Catch ups 2007-06-02 23:08:01
I’m sure that some of us gamers may have done it once or twice. Infact its inevitable for most of us poor gamers out there. There comes a time when we need to decide whether its worthwhile to invest in another console. This can be because we missed out the first time around or we just want another console to expand our gaming horizons.
Deciding whether it is a worthwhile investment is the tricky part. I’ve done this numerous times before and did it again today. So lets take a look at whats required to make that important decision.
Getting started
Lets make the case study for this article be the latest console that I’ve picked up; a Playstation 2. Its better late than never I guess. I’ve been eyeing one off for about 2 years but only recently has it been the best time to buy. Lets take a look at what I did to prepare for a console catch up.
Deciding the worthwhile-ability
The key reason why you are buying an older console is for the games, right? Grab and pen an Read more:Catch
, Console
Why we aren’t going to see a Final Fantasy VII remake 2007-06-06 06:23:43
In the early days of the Playstaion 3 many buddying developers released conceptual gameplay clips in order to show what the system was capable of producing in real time. Square Enix, not to be left out released a trailer of their own based on the most popular entry of their Final
Fantasy series; FFVII. This trailer was purely conceptual and they had no intentions of releasing a FFVII game on the Playstation 3. Now despite saying this the FF fanboys across the globe went rampid speculating that SE were secretly developing a FFVII remake for the console.
Now fast forward to a few days ago where SE character designer; Tetsuya Nomura denied the speculation that SE have a FFVII remake in the pipeline. Now despite him saying this, a few (perhaps) desperate people still believe that SE are secretly going to remake the game.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Final Fantasy
series, especially the Tactics series. But I don’t think that a re-make will happen and hence I present to y Read more:Final Fantasy VII
Why we aren’t going to see a Final Fantasy VII remake 2007-06-06 06:23:40
In the early days of the Playstaion 3 many buddying developers released conceptual gameplay clips in order to show what the system was capable of producing in real time. Square Enix, not to be left out released a trailer of their own based on the most popular entry of their Final
Fantasy series; FFVII. This trailer was purely conceptual and they had no intentions of releasing a FFVII game on the Playstation 3. Now despite saying this the FF fanboys across the globe went rampid speculating that SE were secretly developing a FFVII remake for the console.
Now fast forward to a few days ago where SE character designer; Tetsuya Nomura denied the speculation that SE have a FFVII remake in the pipeline. Now despite him saying this, a few (perhaps) desperate people still believe that SE are secretly going to remake the game.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Final Fantasy
series, especially the Tactics series. But I don’t think that a re-make will happen and hence I present to y Read more:Final Fantasy VII
RSS Folders Problem Fixed – Opera 2007-06-07 19:06:19 Now if your like me you like everything to be nice and organised. I am an Opera browser user and unfortunately in Opera you cannot sort your RSS feeds into folders. This is a feature that really should be added in future versions. You can add filters to your feeds but they just don’t work as well as they should do.
So I thought of this quick fix, basically I just add ‘Category Name -’ to the front of the feed and Opera automatically sorts out all of the feeds into alphabetical order. Sure its a mega basic idea but it might help someone else out there.
Bookmark to:
Read more:Fixed
, Folders
, Problem
The Playstation 2 Story 2007-06-10 07:23:34
How it (tradgically) went down
I haven’t posted about this yet and I really should. Basically I’d been meaning to buy a PS2 for probably 2/3 years now and I finally got around to it the other week. I have been keenly looking for one for about 3 months and found and pretty good deal at Harvey Norman. That was:
-Playstation 2 console
-Extra Controller
-8mb memory card
-2x Platnium titles
Total price - $299
So I worked that out to be about $170 or so just for the console by itself. Which was close enough to my target goal. The deal had everything that I needed to get started so and I was getting a bit anxious of just watching a few decent sales go by. So I decided to get it.
I was assuming that they may have a few other titles that I might want to pick up down at my local Harvey Norman so I was prepared to maybe buy a few more games. Unfortunately their range of games were pretty average infact I was more impressed by their PSP bargain bin. Out of the limited range I chose Bu
This Weeks Linkies - Now a Regular Segment! 2007-06-13 10:27:58
G’day people thanks for tuning in. Its been a while since I’ve written something not related to anything. In the next few days I’ll probably put out something about how my personal life is actually going but until then we have: This weeks linkies.I’ve decided to turn this into a regular segment which I shall try to post bi-weekly. And as its a regular segment now it deserves its own header. Okay lets get into it.
I’ve been saving this one up for a while now. Its a link to an IGN article about a photoshoot with all of the Tomb Raider models. That is models that have cosplayed(I guess) as Lara Croft. For some reason they are suited up in the typical Lara Croft get up. But it makes for a good link anyways. So check it out.
Talking about Tomb Raider, GameTrailers has had a few good video reviews recently including Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. I love video reviews. Screw Attack also have a bunc Read more:Segment
, Weeks
Personal Posting101 2007-06-16 20:31:46 Most listened – The MasterPlan - Oasis
Most played – Sega Megadrive Collection(PS2)
Its been over a month since I posted my last personal blog entry. My blogging habits are definitely evolving with the shift in direction for PrimeScape. Admittingly I have been holding off writing a personal entry as I just wanted to finish all of my Uni work and I just have to ‘close the chapter’.
University
Uni life has been going fine. Being the end of the semester I’ve had plenty of work to do. Thankfully I currently only have one exam left which is Chinese. I have completed my 2 major linguistics essays, my design exam and a phonetics assignment.
Beyond the workload everything has been bumping along pretty typically, I haven’t seen my mates much in the last week as I have been dead set focused on getting all of this work out of the way. But now that its over that is going to change.
Something that I’ve been interested in lately is linguistic relativity. I did a gr Read more:Personal
, Posting
Getting the most out of your avatar (Feat. Hugh Jackman) 2007-06-21 21:28:05 Avatars are generally under estimated, your avatar is your friend. Treat them well and you will be rewarded. This guide shows you how to get the most out of your avatar and also how your avatar can help you out. So let me start with the basics:
What makes a good avatar?
An avatar is a small image which suits your personality, therefore a good avatar is an avatar which best expresses your personality. That is if you are a happy person then display an image of something happy. Simple.
When people communicate with other people through the internet they assosiate that person to their avatar. That is each person’s “identifier” in our minds eye is their avatar. Try it for yourself think of someone you know on the internet and one of the first things that you will think of is their avatar.
This might sound somewhat strange but when peopl communicate thru the internet they literally believe that they are communicating to whatver it is in the persons avatar. Therefore your av Read more:Hugh Jackman
, Jackman
Stephen Welton’s Blogging Success Challenge! 2007-06-19 21:10:25 It may surprise that you that although I blog about videogames I don’t really read many video game blogs. Most of the blogs that I read are about internet entrepreneurs, blogging and success. I find these blogs very motivating and inspiring.
Today I wanted to share something that a fellow blogger wrote about success. Stephen
Welton set his readers a challenge, titled Stephen Welton’s BloggingSuccessChallenge
! Stephen’s idea is that visual images of what we want to achieve in life continuously inspire us to try and reach that goal. This is because when we visualize that image it reminds us of how much we want to be successful and it motivates us to do so. Now Stephen’s challenge was for his readers to:
“Go out and take a photo of something you want of something you really care about that you consider to be part of YOUR success. It could be something you already achieved or something you want. It could be something you consider important to you like your family. W
Retro Review – Lufia 2: The Rise of the Sinistrals 2007-06-24 09:17:06
Welcome to this new and now regular segment; Retro Review where I look back at games of old. This isn’t like a game review though, think of it more so like a retrospective. The name ‘Retro Review’ wouldn’t stop poking at my brain when it came to brainstorming names, so thats why its the review.
Summary
Lufia 2 was developed by Neverland and released on the SNES in 1996. Lufia 2 is the second title in the Lufia series and the first Lufia game to be released in PAL territories. Despite being the second in the series it is actually a prequel to the original Lufia. So where Lufia 2’s story finishes Lufia’s starts.
Lufia 2 is one of the many RPGs to have graced the Super Nintendo. Unfortunately for all its worth it received little notice from the gaming community due to its late release in the system’s life cycle. Which is disappointing as Lufia 2 was the first RPG that I fell in love with. Like many RPGs of the time period Lufia 2 contained the
Three Recent Positives in the Gaming Industry 2007-06-27 02:45:52 Children feel really warm inside when a parent treats their child to something special. Much like children gamers feel the same way when a developer decides to treat their gamers with something special. This kind of consumer love should definitely not go unnoticed. So I have decided to talk about some of these highlights for the gamer.
Final Fantasy I + II
The great thing about these remakes are that most gamers haven’t really played the original games. There’s a lot of Final Fantasy fanboys out there that would have killed to own the original FF games but thankfully Square Enix has prevented any deaths with these two remade games. This is such a positive thing for the gaming industry as it gives gamers what they have wanted for years and honestly what we deserved.
Final Fantasy I has been shipped out to retailers just recently. Infact Square Enix know how badly people want this game that they had/have(damn American timezones) a launch party down at the Metreon Playstation Read more:Gaming
, Recent
, Three
Retro Review - Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master 2007-07-01 10:33:52
Much like my last Retro Review this game is from the 16-bit era. I remember playing Shinobi on my cousin’s Megadrive(Genesis to you Americans) when I was a little tacker. Thankfully SEGA have included Shinobi 3: Return
of the NinjaMaster
in Sega MegaDrive Collection(which I have been madly playing), so I have been able to get back into this awesome ninja game.
Summary
Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master is the 3rd game in the Shinobi timeline and sees the return of evil Neo Zeed. Shinobi 3 is regarded as the best game in the Shinobi series which couldn’t be any truer. When you play Shinobi you can’t help but feel like a ninja, despite the somewhat ‘Americanized’ feel to the game. Stick that ninja feel with some crazy ninja scenarios and you have yourself one of the best damn ninja games of the generation.
Story
NB: The word Shinobi means ‘ninja’ in Japanese, in the Shinobi games, the Shinobi is the hero of the story. Hence the Shinobi cha
Getting out and about – The Social Gamer 2007-06-30 08:31:47 If there’s one thing that I sometimes feel guilty about is not being social enough. This is normally a result of me focusing too much on one particular thing and whoring it out until I am satisfied. Now I must admit, for the last 2 weeks I have been doing this for my Chinese study. I guess its a good thing though as I have made some astounding progress and am very proud of it.
Fortunately for gamer nerds like me(and probably you) I can have a great social life and game at the same time. I wanted to bring this up as I am now officially on holidays an there are a slew of great gaming events going on that are going to keep me constantly busy. Plus I had one of our regular gatherings with the boys yesterday, so it reminded me to post this. Here’s a list of what is on this holidays:
Avcon – Adelaide’s Anime and Video game Convention
LPC – Lan Party Central(meant to be more consoles than PCs)
Nintendo Connection Tour
O-LAN – Street Geek(prolly won’t go, but its Read more:Gamer
, Social
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