2012 releases.. BUSY!

Right now things are really busy in the studio! I’m waiting on a couple small things for Ecifitra to gel and I’ll be releasing it sometime in March. I’m kind of excited about the release, but also a tad nervous. It’s a bit more B-side than I usually like to project on bigger releases and it involves a lot of remixing. I tried to create a new experience from an existing album without releasing too many remixes of just one song. There are a few unreleased tracks from the Artifice writing sessions that didn’t make it on the album for whatever reason. I feel a few of them are actually really fun tracks and deserved to be released. This is something I’ve wanted to do with almost every album I’ve released but it’s not always within the budget. You guys are buying the albums, so I’m taking the money and releasing more albums with said money. It’s what I said I’d do years ago. Bigger releases do have a budget. While its small, mastering, art and listing fees are never free. This release will still be over an hour of new music ft. Cellmod, Ben Arp, Raziel Panic(You Shriek), Human Error, Iammynewt and more. I’d call it an EP, but really it’s become it’s own beast. Ecifitra will be released in March, for only $6.99 at Bandcamp and all of the major MP3 platforms. Digital only, sorry. I don’t have a date planned. Just check social networking one day and it will be out

I had some really good remixes come back and unfortunatly everything wasn’t going to fit, so I released SP5 free on Bandcamp, because I always feel it should be worth people’s time to remix something. Make sure you check this out as well here: http://mangadrive.bandcamp.com/album/sp5

If you tuned into the interview from ISN (http://isnradio.com/playlists.php?showepisodeindex=404), you probably heard me mention something about “The Black Hat EP”. Unfortunatly that album is being moved yet again. I got an interesting proposition from an admired artist AKA: Aliceffekt to do some music for a video game he was developing. As it turns out, he’s got a small crew of indie game developers pumping all kind of talent into this thing. It’s been quite exciting and I’ve decided to focus a lot of energy into writing some very fast paced music for the game as well as music that will go towards the inevitable 2012 release. Some of the music for the game will be pulled from existing Mangadrive material (Mummy Rave Attack Song!). He’s left me in charge of all the music for the game, so basically: HE FUCKED UP OONTZ ALL THE THINGS!! This mecha shooter is incredibly fast-paced and reminds me a lot of Quake II. It’s not a boring slow paced Military shooter for once. Very excited to release this album later in 2012 that will be fueled by this game as it continues to be developed. Here’s a facebook page dedicated to it if you want to know more: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Waiting-for-Horus/307199692668699

Right now the codename of this 2012 musical endevour? “Mechafetish”… Box has done a glorious, and I mean GLORIOUS album cover. I’m hunting down a font artist to finish it off before I unveil the doom that this album cover will bring! In between all of this there is probably an actual EP (for real, only 4 songs this time) for a certain label that shall remain nameless for now,  but…..until the next chapter….

-bee

Crucial Free Plugins

I have some higher priced toys and software, but I’ve found in the past few months that a few free tools have the made the ultimate best use out of these weapons of  Techno destruction. Here’s some things that are a must in my mixes.

 

SMEXOSCOPE

I read about this plugin a lot on producer forums as “OMG USEFUL” and I never thought too much of it to be honest. Recently I was having issues with matching kicks and bass in volume because my ears were not really used to my new monitor setup. A subwoofer in this room is going to be problematic since the shape and position is just really awkward. My next investment is foam diamonds , bass traps and removal of a wall. Until then realistically not too many people have an amazingly perfect air-tight mixing space so we often look for visual feedback tools like this to aid things. I know people say “blah blah use your ears’, but again unless you are mixing in a professional studio you might not be able to hear absolutely everything as it’s happening. Music is still part science like it or not.

This tool is more valuable to me over a spectrum analyzer, because often spectrum analyzers flat out lie and it’s not an accurate indication of truly how much sound is in the given spectrum. Some stuff can show up very very high (sharp leads, crashes, snare rolls,etc) on the spectrum but it’s barely reading -20db on the fader and its fitting in the mix just fine. Ears > feedback always, but Smexoscope is a readout of the actual waveform output in absolute real-time. Waveforms do not lie as long as you understand how to read and use the feedback. This allows you to actually see the attack and/or release of your kick drum and bass, so you can match them evenly with a lot less effort. It doesn’t magically make thin bass sound awesome, but its a great step forward when considering levels and compression. Also combined with a Transient Designer or shaping tools within Battery, you can get a great idea of whats going on a microscopic level.

http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=4

 

 

DFX BUFFER OVERRIDE

Like any iconic VST FX, it can get stale and predictable fast, but used subtly (or like a two-handed axe across a drum bus) it can make things pretty interesting very quickly. Automating the X-Y crosshairs is where the magic happens with this. Map it to a 360 controller and have fun

http://destroyfx.smartelectronix.com/

FERRIC TDS

This simulates oldskool reel-to-reel tape units. I’ve read a lot about stuff recorded during the 90′s when digital was still ‘new and scary’ was actually recorded with digital equipment then brought back through analog devices like these to warm them up. Essentially it’s the best of both worlds where you have accurate and quick means to record to hard disks with very little compromise and limitations, but you get the output from outboard circuits that no software can really match (yet). Saturation is one of the last-steps in a mixdown, but slap this thing on layered sounds and it warms the whole thing up. Use it on Drum Buses…even entire mixes. It might not sound like it’s doing too much at first , but remember, seasons often make food taste better as long as they are used in accurate proportions and in moderation. Saturation is a ‘big picture’ approach (at least for me)

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/

SPAN

Again with the visual feedback. This is the best spectrum tool I’ve come across. You can customize a wealth of settings, but the most significant one is turning the block size up to  at least 8192. Any less and the feedback is too little for mixing low end for me. The makers of Smexoscope also have a similar crafted spectrum tool for free, but I like the ‘traditional’ approach for this tool.

http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

FREE-G

I’m a FL Studio user one of the pitfalls of the program is the metering is pretty crude. Even in other DAWs, there is only so much feedback available, but this takes care of my mixing needs. I keep this up and on top for reference at all times. I rarely have to look at the individual channel mixer setting, because outside of setting the kick drum at -8db, it’s completely irrelevant. As long as everything gels and the mix isn’t going higher than -3db, who cares what the numbers say on channels. Some do say -6db for mixdown, but I’m making loud Techno.  3db is a lot of extra limiting that will just crush things into a square waveform. I try to mix better instead of making a mastering engi do more work. (Hence reworking the entire album from scratch). I’ve found no magic setting for any instrument in recent times. I have a mix where the bass fits nice in the mix and its reading -12db max. In the rework of Tsubaki, I’ve reduced the bass probably 18 times in the mix and its reading -16db max. I still feel like it’s probably too loud even then, because it’s wearing the sub on my home system out…some say that’s a desired effect!

http://www.sonalksis.com/freeg.htm

 

*** Pro-tip: I use a preset channel mixer strip with Smexoscope, Span, Free-G, and not-even-close-to-free SSL EQ on my master bus. One click and I’m mixing. Not fumbling with loading 4-5 plugins. Templates and making your own mixing presets are crucial to workflow efficiency!

MDA PIANO

This was the very first 3rd party VST plugin I ever got. I haven’t kept it around for just nostalgia and as a piano in the mix, its probably the worst thing you can use. However it drops right into a channel, uses very little CPU and allows me to work on getting a melody out of my head as fast as possible. Then I can feed the MIDI into a tweaked synth patch. At least 60% of my melodies are written with this plug-in because I’ve found more often than not, once you open up a ‘goto’ sound or VST, you’ve injected that sound into your brain as belonging in the mix forever. It will be really hard to detach yourself from that sound and in some cases, it might even be counterproductive to explore other options. By writing leads and melodies with this, I can evaluate what sound really needs to go there, but I also don’t risk forgetting my riff or losing that creative streak.

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/123.html

 

I hope that someone finds something useful here. I also hope the production in the upcoming album, Artifice merits the use of these and other plugins and techniques I’ve crafted over the years. Is there any free stuff anyone else uses that I should know about? I’m always evolving my kit and looking for new things. Evolution for survival!

 

 

 

 

Artifice Update #40594093

So as you know I lost a record label due to a lot of things that I could not control. I have nothing but respect and love for all the musicians and staff of that label. I wish nothing but the best for all of them in the future. Business is what business is though and the situation just was just flat out fucking terrible. I planned an album around a label, and 2 months before a release date that was fitting with their time frames I find out they are closing. That really does kinda change things.

Second problem is I had all these mixes and 90% of the ambition came when I had a better idea of when I could get the album out. I had a lot of material I wrote on an older setup and when I brought it into the new gear/studio stuff I got a bit overconfident that things were going well. I sent Chris the tracks to master and after the first level check I was ready to throw the album away. Combine this with the fact there is really no label input for the album just added to the chaos that this project has undergone in the past year. So at the point of no return I’ve started remixing the material into sort of a different beast. I’ve posted a before/after type thing on Soundcloud. While that version of the track probably won’t make the album, its just the difference in sitting down and building a track properly with more consideration. For those that don’t want a lot of technical details… just imagine trying to paint a picture with really bad eyesight on a canvas that is 50 feet away from you because you are restricted and can’t get close. Buy some glasses and move the canvas closer… boom. Art.

I’ve had about 2 weeks worth of sleepless nights trying to get things ready for October. I still have some remixes I promised people as well.  In the end it all be worth the effort, but I don’t want to be the guy that keeps hyping things that don’t ever happen. I couldn’t have planned the past 6 months if I tried though. Lots of lessons learned, battles fought and hindsight. I can’t release another album until its “ready” and more importantly HONEST. You might be able to fool a lot of people with half-hearted material but you can’t fool yourself.

Also… I’d like to welcome @ECGVDJ to the “band”. Just on an official level. They’ve had a lot of input on this album and they will be on keys a lot for the remixing.

-bee

Beyond Artifice…

New album is complete. I’m going to make really minor mixing adjustments over the next couple weeks based on feedback from a few trusted sources, but other than that “this chapter is finished…” This album was a heavy exploration into the darker areas of Psytrance. I want to echo that Dark Psy influence doesn’t always translate into mechanical noise and distortion. This album was intended to be very ‘clean” in production. While that doesn’t mean every track is meant to sound spotless (or does), it just means distortion was a much different creative tool this time and not force fed into every channel on the mixer. This isn’t indicative of any kind of “departure” from any genre of music whatsoever. I just set out to make a Psy-influenced album and did so…. nothing more.

The bad news is this is my last “full” album for a bit.  I’m going to smaller EPs for a while and catch up on a lot of remixing and collaborations that I’ve been putting off with people for too long now. I’m also going to officially announce at some point that my side project “haxx.freq”‘s album has label interest and its highly likely(99.99% chance) to be signed and released early 2012. So that will take some of my time away from this project. I doubt it would ever replace this project for my main focus, because it took me 3 years to even get an album concept molded, much less mixed, finished and sent to mastering. In fact for those that are into my darker, angrier, noisier side can rejoice because the next EP has already been set aside, sketched and I have an artist contacted. It’s intentions are to destroy you and everything you love. I want it to be the heaviest/noisiest thing I’ve assembled ever.

In the meantime, lots of remixing going down. I have 5-6 kits in my hands and a couple other bands waiting to send me stuff. It’s awesome that people like perspective and aren’t scared to be manga-fied! Remember I’ll start Pre-orders for the Black Label edition of Artifice in September:

- T-shirt with “gun logo” as seen on the new mangadrive.net.  The whole reason for the preorder is so you get the size shirt you want. If you don’t pre-order and I have to fill the shirt order and you wait? I herd u like large t-shirts by default dawg. This shirt is ONE PRINT only. If I do shirts again, it won’t be this shirt so miss the boat and L2swim.

- Physical CD-copy of Artifice with color art. Not a Kinko’s CD-R. Evander Holyfield Real Deal here. Keep it in your closet and show your kids what Ipods used to look like in the 90s.

- Stickers. Design yet to be determined, but relative to “By Oontz, Be Driven”. I’m going to try to make sure they will work on cars, refrigerators and neighbor’s pets. First person to tag a cop car and get it on photo will get more free stickers.

- Digital copy while you wait, one week before the masses. This is an open invitation to be the FIRST to upload it to random file-sharing site and splash it on a forum.

- 25$ USD (plus shipping. 5$ US, and 14$ International). This is limited to roughly 20 people and it will be first come first serve. I’ll probably have some CD-only packages , but highly encourage the Black Label package for people that want some rare mangadrive swag.  I’d love to do this kind of thing more often, even with EPS but it has to work. Help me make it work without resorting to Kickstart and other worst ideas ever.

Thanks and I know this was some Tl;DR shit, but if you made it this far and actually paid attention feel free to use “stfuandmakemusic” as a discount code at mangadrive.bandcamp.com for 50% off either Purge.The.Sky or TBWNR.

-bee

Bass Bass Bass Bass

Today’s Twitter post from XP8 sparked an interesting question.

@officialXP8 a question to all the DJs, music lovers and club goers: what kind of bassline do you prefer? Feel free to post examples!

I’m not directing any of this @XP8.. just discussing cause its an interesting question and an excuse to blog.

Truth is a lot of my basslines for Mangadrive are really simple and its on purpose. I focus everything on energy and going “forward” as much as possible. At such high BPMs you really can’t bend the bass too much or it just causes a trainwreck. I actually find it really distracting when the bass is just doing a bit too much, which explains why I don’t particularly love dubstep. Psytrance could be an exception to the rule with its crazy arp basslines but the speed and timing of the bass is actually kind of an audio illusion of sorts. Its mirrored with the kick to create that “running” sound, but if you play the bassline by itself and no kick, it actually sounds completely wonky and it’s still not the most complex thing you’ve ever heard. It’s just a product of two sources working together, which I find interesting.  In my philosophy of studio mindset, the kick and bass are married together and yin and yang with each one no important than the other, but that’s another discussion for another day.

I especially like the 2-3 note “gallop” like the bassline from Fearbomb and quite a few of the tracks on the upcoming album Artifice. On TBWNR and even a bit in Purge.The.Sky I did use the 303 quite a bit. These “classic” and “acid” basslines will always have their way with me. There is just something about the device that nothing else can replicate in terms of really energetic moving basslines or arp sequences. Ok, a million devices try to replicate it, but it was all hatched from the same egg. I did use it on a track on Artifice, but 90% of the basslines were derived from sampling a Virus TI (because ironically using arped basslines is actually shit on this device) or using software. Mainly Sylenth and one track of VB-1, which is a staple in a lot of Psytrance music. Its responsible for that ‘running’ sound that’s really dominant in some of Astral Projection’s and Astrix’s music. That’s exactly why I only used it in one track too, because its been done and its overdone.  It can get kind of clicky and it takes no less than 6 plug-ins on top of it to sound remotely decent, which is way too much effort for something to be a regular venture in my setup. I really tried to create my own bass sounds for every track, but I’m not claiming to be doing anything brand new and innovative in this area at all.

So I guess in short, if you are one of those OMG BASS11!!+shift+1!! type people, then my music probably isn’t going to appeal too much. I did put a lot of effort (and money) into trying to make Artifice have a really thick low end and a couple interesting basslines, but the spectrum of sound spans past 100hz. Most of my favorite albums have some thick basslines, but high end is also brutally crisp which actually helps make the bass sound thick. It’s all important and I like oontzoontzoontzoontz drive energy. Its harder to achieve that with basslines that are doing too much in my opinion, and I just think there is a bit too much emphasis on bass as a singular element in a lot of modern electronic music. I’m much happier with a kick drum that’s pounding my skull in with a synth bass just underneath it instead of the Fischer Price drum kit toy drum with everything scraped off the low end hitting over some kinda wompwomp shit that’s not even on time signature with the track. If I wanna hear “bass music” I’m turning on DJ Magic Mike… period.

So there you go….

And yes I’m strongly hinting that I don’t like dubstep and not because it’s OMG POPULAR SO I HATE IT.. it just doesn’t appeal to my musical senses unless that its that very mellow slow groove stuff which I like many, don’t even consider “dubstep”. Just to clear that up too and its a long conversation. Please don’t confuse my shit talk towards any genre of music as some type of misguided hatred. I actually preach a much different sermon in that area than it sometimes appears. I’m generally a cynical asshole so…..yeah.

-bee

Kick Kick Kick Kick

Just sharing some of the morning thoughts in the studio..

Was reading a more interesting read on a producer forum earlier about how tuning kick drums to the root of your track. This is something I’ve always tried to do for years, but the theory is that changing the timbre of the drum doesn’t actually change the pitch. It changes the attack and release which is actually responsible for giving the drum a pitch…that doesn’t really exist?…

Yeah it hurt my brain, but anyway I’ve found with better speakers that tuning a kick isn’t always nessicary depending on the sound you want to achieve. This is especially true on tracks that don’t might have a root note/frequency, but it changes radically throughout the song. The kick can’t always match the root 100% anyway. Think of a live drummer trying to play in a band with a lot of songs that drift keys constantly. While that doesn’t apply directly to ‘club dance’ type music sound, it still applies to production logic. You can’t always think ‘inside the club’. Dynamics and punch come from a lot of factors. Shoving everything in the same sonic space can be tiresome.

Tuning can go a long way to helping clear up the low end, but sometimes it actually mars the frequencies because there’s too many “like” frequencies hitting right on top of each other. I’m certain this is why Psytrance has adopted very “thin” kicks because it gives a lot of wiggle room for low end running basslines, pads and those tweaky synths. Using the same sonic puzzle pieces over and over is very boring to me, but using a thicker kick forces you to make a choice between kick and bass to dominate. They both can’t sit on the low end in harmony with 50-60hz of pump.  As the spectrum grows upward there will be other places where they conflict usually. It’s pretty standard to notch this section of course, but I really hate the idea of eqing something too aggressively. It means it wasn’t meant to be there in the first place. While this is matter of writing taste, you could place the kick’s root somewhere else, and roll the low end instead.  One way to think of it is playing a pad or chord… you have 3 notes that “belong” to each other and make a very pleasing sound. All 3 of those notes are responsible for making the pleasing tone, but changing one can disrupt the whole thing and make it to where its not a real “note”… If you think for composition then a kick, snare, hat, synth all tuned different can actually have the same effect pitch-wise. Think about it.

My biggest problem with mangadrive’s writing is that I love LOW notes. I write in A and B a lot way down near the bottom of the piano so matching kicks used to be a headache of a process when relying on premade samples. I recently just started crafting my own because if you want something specific you gotta do it yourself. You can’t always tune a kick too low or it just sounds like a basketball without proper air hitting pavement over and over…put some more air in it and it bounces if you will, so sometimes I have to rely on uptuning anyway. Finding a good balance between bass that hits and a kick that hits will be an eternal conflict for Technofiends…

Just some things to think about for all my beat heads out there…

This week on Teknofiend – PS4? – Frozen Synapse Review

I’m working on getting this blog into a weekly format again.. I’ll add fancy headers and what not, just bear with me this week.

[TL;DR of the Week]

I’ve read several top-end gaming news sites reporting that the PS4 is attempting to launch in 2012, complete with full body motion controls. Since I’m not really interested in playing virtual YMCA in front of my TV, I’m just gunna have to pass. I not naive enough to believe most games will abandon all forms of controller input and switch, but its how I’ve started gaming in modern times. I used to be the consumer that would line up on Day 0 and buy the latest platform with hopes of bigger and better games. Well over a decade has past and quite frankly video games just have not evolved too much if you really think about it.

I’m still playing Quake, but now its a burnt out middle eastern city, with admitingly more intense graphics and sound. FPS at its core has not changed much. Traditional RPG settings have accepted a more Western approach that’s very heavy on cinematic elements and a lot of story, which is completely awesome. However I feel like no game is trying to marrige fluid-fast-fun combat with RPG elements and actually succeeding in total without either side of the fence feeling sacrificed or even tacked on. I love driving games and the graphics keep getting better, but I’m still driving around a track and buying cars with my cash. I could go on and on and while a younger gamer is always going to argue with me, its perspective that newer gamers won’t understand. We came from literally Pong to see Call of Duty Black Ops. I’m sorry but going from Call of Duty 1 to Call of Duty Black Ops isn’t much of an evolution outside of flashy graphics.

While all of this sounds like someone whining about the current state of gaming, its not. Its actually me saying, I’m fine with the games I have right now. If you are simply going to sell me better graphics without better games behind them, then I don’t need your console right now. I’ll wait till all the games are in bargin bins and while everyone is throwing 60 bucks at the same game with “more”, I’m not wasting my money and having the same exact experience everyone else is. I’ve caught up with the modern times with consoles and jumped into MP gaming more recently, but it took years for that to happen. I just don’t expect this to change. I’ll always have an up-to-date PC which might not provide the total gaming experience, but there will be more than one great long-lasting multiplayer game to play in between. I played WoW for around 6 years off and on, Starcraft II has been really promising, Rift is actually fun to play and Diablo III will eventually come out. I’m fine folks.. Keep your motion controls. I’ve got a PC , 360 and PS3 to keep me busy for years.

[Review of the Week]

Note: I keep my reviews short and to the point. If you want someone to give you a walkthrough styled review, there are plenty of commerical sites that point this out, but I like most gamers, just want the bad and the good minus the 100 page story or rant that sounds like the person didn’t even like the game before they clicked play or are excited to talk about it in all caps after 20 mins of the first level.

Frozen Synapse [PC]

ITS MGS VR MISSIONS!!! YESSSSS

This game takes the likes of X-com and actually does something a bit new and different. Each side can plan their moves then decide to commit. Once they commit, both sides move and attack each other. Think Counterstrike + Chess. If you don’t have any sort of patience, just move along. I laughed the foolish mortal need of reading tutorials and claimed myself as tactical master, but this game sent me back to the menu where I had to indulge in the learning process. This game has its own way of doing things and you will have to adapt and learn.

Pros:

- Every mission and skirmish is randomly generated, meaning that if you like the style of gameplay you can play it forever and not play the same map twice.

- Excellent soundtrack by nervous_testpilot. I usually hate music in games, but this is doing it right.

- Takes strategy to win. While you have to micromanage every single move you want your troops to do, its rewarding to see a good plan come together. You can’t just production chain the game to death.

- The graphics and atmosphere make me feel like I’m playing a future version of Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, which there wasn’t enough of.

Cons:

- I’m always going to question the outcome of both sides plan coming together on a logistics level, but I understand that a bit of RNG will always be in play. Since the game is heavy on control and light on details, it can easily bother me to know that I have a guy crouched around a corner camped and waiting for a by-passer only to get turned on and fired upon on first sight. It can go either way, but like with all strategy games, sometimes you have to roll a 12 sided dice and will lose.

- Sometimes I try to click on my next guy to give orders and it just draws a waypoint for the last guy I had clicked to the new guy that’s usually standing a whole level away. I then have to delete all those orders. I eventually just started using /next/ but note… this game does use a mouse so using the mouse shouldn’t be punishing.

- The interface and setup for Multiplayer was a bit confusing and intimdating. I read that they are trying to consolidate everyone into one server and update it a bit so hopefully by the time you read this, you won’t even know what I’m referring to. I do know that needing an email notification that someone wants to play a game is heavily archaic in 2011.

** Not a pro or con, but you have to buy 2 copies of the game, so I feel like its priced as such. I didn’t mind paying 12 bucks for a Steam sale, and honestly the 20 bucks retail tag wouldn’t deter me especially considering the random generation makes the game infinite. I made a friend happy, but I hope the people that randomly gave their free copy away didn’t put one in the hands of some of those dipshits that hack MP demos and play on Steam for 90+ hours just to greif people. Chances are their brains couldn’t process the game though. I just don’t want to see unwanted guests in a game where a bit of maturity is going to be in order. This IS chess, not Quake.

What If?:

While the graphics are servicable I’d love to see more detailed evironments but purely for strategy sake. Not nessicarily ‘better more realistic’ environments either. Ducking behind a desk in an office building would be logical, but moments like this don’t happen in this game. The levels are a tad too “Pac-Man”, but it works. Almost too well sometimes, but I do think using the futuristic/Tron-esque graphic base was a far smarter move than using real-bad-low-budget textured anything. A game like this that was fully fleshed into a full tactics game like Silent Storm or even… X-com based on the mechanics in this game could be huge if not phenominal.

8.5/10

Mame 143 – CAVE GOODNESS

WUUUUUUUUUUUUUT?!

I decided to peek and see if anything new was around for MAME. Once I loaded up the new version and did my inevitable sweep for “Cave” this glorious list of ownage awaits. Obviously the red “X” means they do not work at all, but I am MOSTTTTTT curious about the additions of DDP3, Ketsui, and Espgaluda. I’ve played DDP3/ESPGaluda on the PS2, but the ports are problematic at best. I haven’t played Ketsui but it ranks very high on a lot of people’s lists. I would be absolutely amazed to see the red “X” games become working even if it was months down the line for others that don’t own 360 imports. I have Ibara for PS2 as well but the interlacing is horrid to the point where the game is barely playable. It would be nice to get that going because its one of the few bomber-style games out there.

Ikaruga still appears ‘not working’, which isn’t surprising.

I’m still digging for links for ROMs, but news comes soon!

PSP Haxx. The easy way…

It just gets worse for Sony..

One of my favorite things about the PSP is it’s a hackable toybox that can do a bit more past playing its own library of games. Having a portable SNES system is very desirable, but hacking the firmware can be a confusing ordeal. Some models even require a special battery to force it into recovery mode to allow it to be hacked. In certain situations some can’t even be hacked or modded at all. Especially those that have upgraded their firmware past a certain version.

Today I got a 8 gig stick in the mail that I had every intention of hacking my PSP with. I’ve been out of the loop for years now and haven’t bothered since it was all about having a “Phat 1.5″. I found out quickly that right now hacking the firmware is /almost/ obsolete. Someone has invented a wrapper that “signs” the EBOOT (the digital copy of the game). This allows you to take the hacked EBOOT and copy it straight to your memory stick and play it as you would a game you just bought from PSN. It doesn’t stop there either. This signing method has expanded into emulation. As of right now you don’t even need a custom firmware to run signed emulators.

I fumbled around with the signing hack and came up short several times and turned to pre-signed games. This doesn’t come without limits. As of right now there is a ~720 meg limit on the file that can be signed. A lot of the more flashy games are way past this, so its not a 100% fix. If you are like me though, you wanted to play some niche JP RPGs and a handfull of roms without any BS. Sold. Of course if you want 100% hack you will have to be a bit more creative, but for my needs , this is perfect and it still keeps the device legit for PSN/PS3 usage.

If you are curious, just google “PSP OFW SIGNED” or similar searches. If you need me I’ll be playing strange JP games and Aerobiz Supersonic on my portable SNES…

Dungeon Crawlin’

I love sandbox/random generated games, but especially when you throw me in them with an RPG foundation. In my long and patient wait for Diablo III, I’ve come across some free/indie type games that have held me over a bit. Don’t expect some type of AAA gaming experience. These are Rogue-likes which means they are very oldskool in spirit and form. Its all about the gameplay here. Final Fantasy these games are not. These games are the type that get harder as you play them and in a lot of cases are trying to be as unfair as possible.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup [PC]

Hack.Slash.Do it again.

This is the most robust one I’ve found for FREE. It has a ton of class and race options,including MUMMIES!.  There’s even an “Online” mode that I’ve yet to try and the developer runs monthly tournaments. I’ve been too busy trying to advance into the dungeon, but its a bit difficult with some class/race combinations. I recommend the Unified version which does overlay the original ASCII based game with tiles, but it still requires a lot of key inputs to cast/attack and what not. It hasn’t been very modernized, but I personally feel like that’s a good thing. You can be a wuss and read the manual but I’m having fun trying to figure out the game as I go.

Download

Desktop Dungeons[PC]

I’ve played this one on and off for a while. I noticed they actually made it possible to play it through the browser and they are now pushing a new ‘paid for’ version of the game. You can still download the original for free, but it seems the new upgraded version is going to cost a bit. Nonetheless this one is a bit more modernized and a lot of fun. You can play the whole game with the mouse and its not impossibly hard to understand. My only real gripe with this game is that each level is organized a bit chaotic and sometimes it throws you a level that might be incredibly hard or even impossible to pass, but according to this list they’ve fixed that in the retail version. This game is still fun even though its pretty much a demo of the real thing.

Download/Play/Buy

 

Epic Dungeon [XBOX 360]

This is only 80 points in the XBLA Indie section and its worth way more in my opinion. This game remains a Rogue-like but adds a few cool elements like class-based spells and shops. The combat is a bit stiff as you just use your stick to move in a direction and it auto attacks, but it doesn’t detract from the point of the game which is getting deeper into the dungeon. I’ve spent a few hours on this randomly and always come back to it. It has an internal achivement system, and lots of replay value. For 1 dollar you just can’t beat this.

Homepage – Search for this on Xbox Live Arcade in the Indie section to buy it.

Inside A Star Filled Sky [PC]

Its not quite Rogue, but then again it is. Part shmup and part-Rogue to be exact and I think its fair to lump it with these, although something a tad different.. I’ve not really played any other game like it, but it does feel like a hybrid version of Epic Dungeon. The gimmick is that you can enter inside every object in the game and it becomes its own level, that is separate from the actual level you are trying to get deeper inside. So you can go inside of a power-up that’s inside an enemy that was inside another power-up that was in the original level you started at… Yes very “Inception” and its maddening to try to figure it all out. Getting lost is pretty easy in my short time experienced with the game. Its only 8 bucks on Steam and you could do worse with your money.

Homepage – Buy it on Steam though, its cheaper.