Undrblog - Games

4.2U Wii, homebrew hack.

nospam@example.com (War) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:59:18 -0500

A while ago, a friend of mine helped me exploit my Wii, so that I could run the Homebrew channel. There are many advantages to doing this, and for lots of reasons. Not just game piracy. Homebrew lets you install 3rd party apps on your Wii, which allow you to get some creative use out of the system. You can also connect USB storage to your Wii, and use it to store your games, so that you dont need to swap discs around when you want to play a game.

When we hacked the Wii, it was running update 3.6. I'd stopped updating the Wii from Nintendo's update procedure because I assumed that they would probably tromp on my hacked wii, and restore the OS to its pristine condition, and I'd then have to go through re-hacking.

Well, I knew this time would come. I was forced into an update, so I could run the New Super Mario Brothers game. I guess it has something to do with the ability for the players to interact as they do in the game. So, i bit the bullet, and ran the update. It wasn't until after i ran the update that i found a number of reports on the 'net about how to update a hacked Wii, without actually running nintendo's update. This would have kept my Homebrew intact, and still gotten me the update. But, oh well, I was committed at this point.

After some digging, I found a number of how-to's on the subject of hacking a 4.2U Wii. 4.2U being the most recent update. I tried a number of them, and none of them worked. Until i found this how-to, which was SOOOOO much easier to follow than some of the others.

Since i'd been through so many other failed attempts at hacking this system, and since it was hacked once before, i decided now was a good time to backup my save data, and format the Wii's system memory. Luckily, i was able to backup all of my save data to an SD card, and then save that data to my PC. I then performed the format, but wasnt able to put my save data back on the Wii until after i'd run each game at least once. This meant i either had to break out all of my discs, or get homebrew and the usb loader working before i could get my save data off of my sd card. So i started down the road to Wii-freedom. In the end, it wasnt all that difficult, and i ended up with bootmii, which is a more secure replacement for Wii's boot2 loader, and the homebrew channel. I also have all of my USB capability back, and once i get all of my homebrew software reinstalled, i'll have all of the functionality that i had before the format.

On top of all that, i can play Mario now.

Star Trek Online.

nospam@example.com (War) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:31:15 -0500

Well, it looks like the game's going to make it out the gate! After quite a bit of ups and downs. Cryptic recently announced a release date (02/02/2010) and the game is available for pre-order.

You also get some cool extra's for pre-ordering.

I've pre-ordered, you should too!

STO: Who's taken the torch?

nospam@example.com (War) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:51:25 -0500

According to this link on Warcry's forums, Cryptic Studio's (the makers of City of heros/villians) has is the recipient of the STO content. With any luck they'll actually pick up where P2 left off, and not severely muck up what thus far promises to be an excellent game.

-War (Crossing fingers)

Possibly bad news for STO.

nospam@example.com (War) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:03:58 -0500

A friend of mine passed along this article yesterday.

Apparently Perpetual entertainment has changed their name (To P2 Entertainment), and ceased work on STO, and transfered all but the game code to another developer. I'm really hoping that this does not really mean that STO's going to turn into Vaporware, but it just doesn't look good.

At the very least, this means we're going to have to wait a whole lot longer for STO... Sigh.

-War

EQEmu

nospam@example.com (War) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:43:19 -0500

As you read in another posting, I'm an EQ Vetran. I stopped playing due to lack of time, money, and to be honest, a loss of interest. Sony has an excellent game in EQ, but some of the implementation is poor. Experience for example. It would take me DAYS (of a few hours a day) to get a level, ONE level! I'm admittedly a casual gamer at best. I play when i have time and nothing else important to do. When i was in my EQ hayday, i played about 2-4 hours after work before i went to bed (worked second's, home at 10:30pm, grabbed a snack, logged in about 11 logged out between 1 and 2AM). So you wouldn't exactly call me a powergamer. I enjoyed the game though. LOTS of geography to explore, and that's what i love in a game. There were nights i'd just explore, see what i could find.

As I hinted at earlier, I dont exactly agree with how Sony runs the game. I think Experience is too slow, and the whole game is geared toward grouping. Which is great for players with a lot of friends, but i like to play my Rogue like a rogue, Rogues dont really surround themselves with paladin's, cleric's, and well,, pretty much anyone else. Theyre a reclusive lot, they do their thing in the shadows, when no one notices them. Taveling around with a group of 5 other players is just not rogue like! I had a few friends, but at most i'd play in groups of 2 or 3. So i was stuck fighing creatures of lower levels than Me, so i the already slow experience, was EVEN SLOWER because i couldnt fight creatures of my level or higher.

So i quit, like i said, lost interest, didnt want to pay for a game that i wasnt playing. Lost my level 20ish rogue (main character) and a years worth of work (i told you i wasnt a power gamer). A little while later i read about this project by HackerQuest, they were developing an EQ emulator. Kinda neat. Spent a day tinkering with it. At the time it was terrible, so i gave it up, but it got me looking for other emulators.

Enter EQEmu.

This looked like a much better project than hackerquest's from the get-go. It's built as a stand in for Sony's server. It is meant to mimic sony's server, but the whole thing is configurable. You can modify the EXP rate (nudge nudge) party exp rate, all the creatures, spawn points, loot tables, everything!

I first found EQEmu in 2004 or so. I'm more of a do it yourself kinda guy, so i downloaded the source. 0.6.0 IIRC, and built a server. Took me days. It fought me every step of the way! Heh. But i got it working. It was dog slow on the hardware that i had at the time. And so full of bugs that it was unplayable. So i gave up on the whole thing.

A few years later (Now) i decide to check back on the project and see what's changed. Theyre up to 0.7.0 now, A lot of servers are up and running (probably 30, vs the 8 or so that were live when i first tried it). Most are custom. There's a whole project dedicated to just item/monster/spawn/quest data collection. Once again, i ran through and setup my own server. Things went much more smoothly this time. I'd learned a lot since my first attempt. I know what i'm doing with C++ compliation, source tree's, makefile modifications, and MySQL now. I set it up, played around with it, then promptly started playing on someone elses server. My server's still up and running, but it's got 1 player... Me. So that gets kinda boring. I'm playing on Project EQ's "grand creation" server. Which is where they have their database of quests, monsters, items, whatever live for players. It's about 95% legit (as compared to live). The experience is turned up a little. (about 1.5 times) which is nice, its not so much that you get that cheater feeling, but it's faster than on live, which is teriffic!

My wife and I are both playing. She;s new to the game, but she's enjoying it. There's something about EQ. It's just easier to play than a lot of other MMO's out there. We played DAOC together for a bit, and she got bored with it quick, then we played WoW on WoWSexy for a while, again, bored, but this is working out nicely. I'm playing my Rogue, Gangrif, and she;s playing a Ranger, Arora, both Half Elves. We've been playing up in BlackBurrow and kicking some Gnoll behind for about a week now. We just hit Level 12 last night. I'm collecting BB Gnoll Skins for the Burning Rapier quest, which i intend to run through once i;m a high enough level. The problem is, i know nothing about rangers, so it's all new to me, as to what we need to get her.

-War

Star Trek: Online!

nospam@example.com (War) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:11:32 -0500

I came across two very exciting pieces of information today!

First, i found out that there's a StarGate SG1 MMO in the works. It's called "Stargate Worlds" and it's based on the Stargate SG1 universe. It was apparently announced back at the beginning of 2006 and i missed it. It;s being developed by MGM Interactive, and Cheyenne mountain. Pretty cool stuff. While i was reading about it, i stumbled across a hint of an upcoming Star Trek MMO. Well... that stopped the Stargate search in its tracks. I've always been a HUGE fan of Star Trek TNG and to some extent DS9. The slightest hint of an MMO got my attention.

Well i found it! Star Trek Online

Now i'm back in anticipation mode. I remember this feeling... Back in 2000 i picked up Everquest. Got hooked. EQ gave way to Dark Age Of Camelot, i remember sitting there in Tech Support (the job i worked at the time) staring at every site i could find with the littlest tidbits of information about the upcoming game. Then Anarchy Online! Except with AO my love of Sci-Fi drug me in even further. Then WoW.. You get the idea. Except this is different. I have NO IDEA when STO's going to be released. I cant even find a date when it was announced! It looks like it was also early 2006, The oldest article i can find on their site is dated February fo 2006.

I cannot wait! It's being developed by Perpetual Entertainment, and from some of the tidbit's i've been able to gather online, it's going to be a pretty good game. Theyre claiming that it's goig to be groundbreaking. We'll see if it's really all that, but even if it's not half bad, i'll be happy. I've always wanted a first hand role in the Star Trek universe. Well now is my chance. You ca bet i'll be posting more when i get more information!

-Ensign War

MegaMan

nospam@example.com (War) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 22:37:54 -0400

Do you remember MegaMan?

I spent HOURS, probably DAYS playing MegaMan 2 when i was a kid. On my old NES.. Ha, what a time I had. Well a few years ago my wife bought me the MegaMan Anniversary collection for my Gamecube. Its basically all of the old megaman games, from 1 through 8, and two "secret" games, which i havent unlocked yet. I'm sure i could find out online what they are, but hey, its part of the suspense!

Anyway, I finaly found the time to play it! I played megaman 2 all the way up to Dr. Wiley's castle last night, and then i started playing MegaMan 8. 8's pretty cool, ive finished two levels, and i'm working through the rest. Pretty fun game, but i do have one observation... Megaman's a wimp! Seriously, what's with the girly voice, and the save the planet attitude? I mean, i know he's all about doing good and all, but seriously, is he equipped with anti-smog devices too?

Anyway, fun game, if you have a gamecube, or i guess a Wii, as they play GC games, check it out.

-War

Money for nothin, and the WoW's for Free!

nospam@example.com (War) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:29:15 -0400

Anyone who knows me, know's I've been into MMO's for almost 10 years now. I started with EQ at the beginning of 2000, and now being 2007, i guess that makes it 7 and a half years. Anyway, I like the idea of MMO's, but i've never liked the monthly subscription fee's. I understand why theyre necessary, but I just dont like paying a monthly fee for a game that I've already purchased!

The last game that i actually paid for was WoW, I closed my account near the end of 2005, due to lack of time and at the time, lack of interest. Every game gets to the point where you just dont want to play anymore, and you need to take a break. Well i took a break, and found better uses for the monthly subscription fee, and never re-upped. Well, I miss it. Not just WoW, but the whole MMO scene. Financially, things have changed, and I still cant justify the monthly charges, so I've been hunting for something free, that might fill the void.

Someone suggested Eve Online. While it's not free, they DO have a 14 day free trial. So I went ahead and signed up. What a phenominal game! I was about 90% sure i was going to buy a subscription once my trial ended, but on the day it ended, i changed my mind. Theyre fee's are something like $20 for the first month, and $15 thereafter (or close, check their website if you want to know for sure, what do i look like, an ad campeign?), and I couldn't see spending that monthly...

So the trial expired, and i was left with no game, again. I did some more digging. I had toyed with a WoW server emulator a few months back, and i had it working! The playable game was so full of bugs though, that I just couldn't enjoy it. While I was researching the emulator I was using, i ran across publicly run free WoW servers, that actually host their servers on commercially hosted dedicated servers, and have an actual staff that maintain the world! They pay for all of this through donations.

Enter, WoW-Sexy (www.wow-sexy.com)... WoW-sexy is the name of a group who runs one of these servers, well, really, a few of them. They have a "Fun" server, which is a modified game, with a load of exp per kill, and non bliz-like (the term for blizzard like servers) content. Then they have a server which tries to mimic the live game as close as possible. It runs TBC, and has all of the current live content. It's still got its share of bugs, but it is VERY playable. The EXP is something like 3x live. which is ok imho, its not like a level per kill, but it does speed things up a bit. I play on this server, and it's very close to a live WoW experience. Some nights I can play all night and not run into a single bug, other nights, its a little frustrating, on the bright side, you can usually find a GM online, and get bugs taken care of.

Check it out! Seriously, it's fun!

-War