Here's the footage I shot from the Bubble Battle NYC After Party. The party was a blast and the chiptune was an aural delight. I really dig the people at loft parties. That layer of pretension gets checked at the door. Everyone's chill, it's just a gathering of really together cats. I can't think of a single asshole from that party. I danced almost the entire time. When I wasn't dancing I was tits deep in heavy conversation about God-knows-what. I made friends that night. I didn't leave the premises until after the sun came up, but not before we (those actually living at the Wonderland Collective), had breakfast. This party ended well after question mark. I slept the entire next day.


This video may or may not contain the following performers: Bit Shifter, Bubblyfish, Glomag, Nullsleep, The Rev. (List copied from Self-Referential Title.) The "may or may not" part stems from the fact that I only recorded four performers, one of whom is obviously Bubblyfish. I didn't put her name in the video since I'm not so sure which guys I taped. I thought it would look odd if I credited her and nobody else. I tend not to plan these things in advance. I took only my pocket camera with me because I was just there to chill.

(You should download PSicture if you haven't already.)


Another quality release by snailrush. This one is a PSicture plug-in for Vagrant Story; however, I see no harm in scanning other games with it. Whenever snailrush released a new plug-in I would always try them on Capcom fighting games. To date I don't believe anyone's figured out how Capcom stored their sprites. It's disappointing, really. Granted, the PSX ports of those games were stripped down from their arcade counterparts but that doesn't make me any less curious.

0xtob (or just Tob), FINALLY released version 0.4 of NitroTracker. I can honestly say the wait has been excruciating--and totally worth it! There was a time when I would check his website on a daily basis in hopes of seeing a new release, which turned out to be a total waste of time since the news was announced on his mailing list the day before the site was updated. I had totally forgotten about the mailing list. My jaw hit the keyboard when I read the subject line:

[NitroTracker] NitroTracker v0.4 is here at last!

"At last", indeed.

NitroTracker is an amazing sequence of code that grants you the privilege of making pretty sounds come out of your NDS--on purpose--whenever the mood strikes you. Tob took the, "When it's ready" approach to this release and it shows. A lot of polish and testing went into this and I find the interface a lot more intuitive this time around.

If you're new to NitroTracker you might find the interface a little overwhelming. I can assure you it's easier than it looks. I suggesting anyone that hasn't already done so to give the NitroTracker Manual a quick read. There is also an official NitroTracker Forum and an IRC chat room (#nitrotracker on Espernet) in place if you need to connect with like-minded individuals.

Of all the new features I think Multi-Sample Instruments (MSI) has the most potential for exploitation. It is a fair compromise for a lack of VST support. At the end of the day you're still working with samples but I can imagine putting together something like a really wicked drumkit by way of MSI! Honestly, VST support is the last item on my NitroTracker wish list. I would be cool to have but I don't think it's a realistic goal; I just don't know if the NDS can handle the memory requirements. Then again, wasn't the same thing said about NEO-GEO emulation on the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo DS? Besides, if NitroTracker is missing something you need, just load the XM file into your MAC/PC tracker of choice and continue from there.

If you're still not convinced I recommend listening to some tracks composed in NitroTracker. you'll find a few tracks were included with the release for that extra inspirational push.

If you have a Nintendo DS and a flash card you have no excuse for not installing this. Even if you have no musical skill you can have fun recording samples with the NDS microphone and playing them back on the synth. Those of you with a musical background should be happy to know there is midi support. I was able to get it running on Windows XP and it's also been tested to work on Macs.

While the topic in the official chat room might read, "NitroTracker v0.4 is out! Think it's cool? Just wait for 0.5..." I feel there's enough to keep us busy in v0.4 until that becomes a reality.

download: NitroTracker v0.4
web: NitroTracker

My cousins came to stay with me over Independence Day Weekend. They wanted to visit the M&M's World in Times Square. Customers can be seen taking great pleasure in filling their sacks with different colored M&M's.

I filled my sack with only black M&M's.

Clerk: Keeping it simple?

Me: They all taste the same.

His demeanor changed and the transaction concluded in silence. While I had intentionally purchased the black M&M's to prove a point, a tiny part of me felt bad for taking the wind out of his sails. He had been quite perky with all the other "guests."

You would think some other cynical asshole had already done what I did. I suppose not.

The Fetish Factory will ship any order totaling $100 or more for free. Seeing as how high-priced fetish clothing can get to begin with, I'd take them on their offer. They have a great selection; your shopping cart will be full before you know it.

Offer good through July 31st.

"I made it because other 'similar' applications are a bit crappy (only a bit :D ), to say what I truly think."
- snailrush

His site is dead. He left the scene about two-three years ago. It's a shame because the guy made some really good tools in his day. PSicture is one of the many graphics rippers released for the PlayStation. PSicture is the best PlayStation graphics ripper you'll ever find. That's saying a lot seeing as how this program was released back in 2003. PSicture allows you to save a list file once you've finished scanning for data. Back when faster optical drives were more expensive this was a welcome feature. And it still is, why run the same scan the every time?

PSicture also has a plug-in architecture. Included in the zip file are plug-ins for four different image formats. snailrush released more plug-ins separately and I'll be sharing them soon. Unfortunately, I don't believe he ever released a guide on how to make these plug-ins. Then again, he might have, my memory is vague on this.

One should note that unlike a lot of other scene releases this tool is very well documented. snailrush clearly put a lot of thought into what he did. Neither the documentation nor the program look hastily put together. And that's not a crack at other scene releases, I'm just saying the hard work isn't go unnoticed.

PSicture is truly is a gift to the PlayStation dev scene.


download: PSicture 1.02