Robbway's blog

My refresher to programming and intro to XNA is this book by publisher Wrox. It used to be that the best way to really understand programming was to write a game. That's still true. I'm only thru chapter one. I tried chapter two, and it lost me immediately. Why? because it didn't explain how to add graphics resources. Chapter one was a really good intro with a take on the XNA example, "Hello, World."

My refresher to programming and intro to XNA is this book by publisher Wrox. It used to be that the best way to really understand programming was to write a game. That's still true. I'm only thru chapter one. I tried chapter two, and it lost me immediately. Why? because it didn't explain how to add graphics resources. Chapter one was a really good intro with a take on the XNA example, "Hello, World."

So I impulse-bought an Xbox game, Xyanide.  It is not on the back-compat list, so I play it on the classic system.  Xyanide hails from the UK and is a space shmup.  The power up system is really complicated, but well described, in the manual.  The plot and movies seem to be inspired by the movie, "The Chronicles of Riddick."  Anyway, the game plays an awful lot like Silpheed on the PS2.  There are two ways to power up your ship, organic (powerfull defense and guided fire), and mechanical (powerfull offense and semi-guided fire).  The lock-on missile system requires you to count the missiles

So I impulse-bought an Xbox game, Xyanide.  It is not on the back-compat list, so I play it on the classic system.  Xyanide hails from the UK and is a space shmup.  The power up system is really complicated, but well described, in the manual.  The plot and movies seem to be inspired by the movie, "The Chronicles of Riddick."  Anyway, the game plays an awful lot like Silpheed on the PS2.  There are two ways to power up your ship, organic (powerfull defense and guided fire), and mechanical (powerfull offense and semi-guided fire).  The lock-on missile system requires you to count the missiles

I played thru the first 250 Bust-a-Move puzzles.  My opinion hasn't changed since the dustbin diving post.  The manual said there were 250 more and I had to go to GameFAQs to find out where they were.  The second set of puzzles has powerups in the setups, usually.  I also tried multiplayer with the computer, and its a lot of fun!  It is pure chaos, though.  I uncovered a bug that if you hold down the "+" key while starting it may jumble your graphics.

I played thru the first 250 Bust-a-Move puzzles.  My opinion hasn't changed since the dustbin diving post.  The manual said there were 250 more and I had to go to GameFAQs to find out where they were.  The second set of puzzles has powerups in the setups, usually.  I also tried multiplayer with the computer, and its a lot of fun!  It is pure chaos, though.  I uncovered a bug that if you hold down the "+" key while starting it may jumble your graphics.

I'm not forever dustbin diving. "Crush" for the PSP. All the buzz was that it was like Super Paper Mario. It is a platformer that plays in 2D and 3D modes, but the similarity ends there. Crush is a collection/find the way out game. The puzzles are supremely difficult! I hate to say the tutorials are incredibly boring, too. To give you an idea of the gameplay, first think of a 3D platform game with limited jumping, crouching, and crawling. You have to pick up orbs to open the exit. Then you must step on the exit. That's it!

I'm not forever dustbin diving. "Crush" for the PSP. All the buzz was that it was like Super Paper Mario. It is a platformer that plays in 2D and 3D modes, but the similarity ends there. Crush is a collection/find the way out game. The puzzles are supremely difficult! I hate to say the tutorials are incredibly boring, too. To give you an idea of the gameplay, first think of a 3D platform game with limited jumping, crouching, and crawling. You have to pick up orbs to open the exit. Then you must step on the exit. That's it!