『 ナイトメアー・ビフォア・クリスマス & パーフェクトダーク ゼロ 』

『 The Orange Box: Original Soundtrack 』

Today, on December 22nd, Valve has released "The Orange Box: Original soundtrack". Grab it while you can since Valve aren't too keen on releasing music from their games and it will surely become sold out in no time at all [just like the Black Mesa Parking Permits].

Valve was kind enough to include a few original tracks / remixes that you wouldn't be able to obtain through ripping the music directly from the games. This, plus the wallet friendly price of 9.95 make the soundtrack into a must have.

I've already ordered mine. I truly hate Valve store though. For some reason they refuse to accept my card and I'm forced to use PayPal instead. I've tried to purchase the item using my card and each time I was informed that there was a problem with the validation. This however, didn't stop Valve store from reserving a proper amount of money from my account. So basically I now have one soundtrack purchased and three more purchases reserved for validation.

『 ワンダースワン 風のクロノア ムーンライトミュージアム 』

It all started back in 1997, when Namco and Klonoa Works made their first game in the series. Klonoa, much like NiGHTS is a guardian of dreams and he travels around the dream world, making sure everything is fine and that we all sleep tight.


First game was a 3D or 2,5D platformer released for Sony's PlayStation. The game was a moderate success and this was enough to make a sequel, which was released later, on the PlayStation 2. In between these two games, Klonoa received its first handheld version. This was of course Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum.


Being a strong franchise, Klonoa not only recieved a game but also a special bundle pack in which the game was sharing a box with a WonderSwan mono console. Sadly, unlike Final Fantasy editions of WonderSwan Color, the Klonoa bundle console is just a regular skeleton blue version, without any Klonoa logotypes on it.


But hey, that doesn't make it any less special. In fact, the Klonoa bundle is harder to find than the Final Fantasy bundles, which were produced in much larger quantities. I was incredibly lucky to get mine for cheap, and except for some really small signs of wear on the box, everything inside was brand new.


Moonlight Museum is a fun game and its transition to 2D went smoothly. All the key elements of gameplay are still here, even though now it's all black and white on a dot matrix screen. Visually the game may not be as impressive as the GameBoy Advance version, but it can still hold its own.


The game is quite long. Each of the five worlds we'll be visiting is divided into six visions, or sub-stages if you will, which will keep you occupied for a long time. The music is a typical lo-fi chiptune arrangement of some tunes we've heard in the PlayStation game, plus a handful of new ones.


If you come across this title and you like platformers, buy it because it's certainly worth it. The game is right up there with some of the Mario games. Also, because of strong ghosting on the WonderSwan mono screen, I suggest you play it on SwanCrystal. It will make the game much more enjoyable.

『 ワンダースワン 専用充電器・充電池セット 』

WonderSwan is a pretty energy efficient console. It runs on a single AA type battery which will last you longer than any GameBoy model out there. WonderSwan's slim profile made it impossible for the battery to fit inside of the console, so the designers have placed it in a special casing.


This removable battery housing makes it possible to exchange the original piece for a replacement rechargable battery unit which fits the battery housing place perfectly and thanks to its design, it makes WonderSwan even slimmer, removing the bulge that normally holds the battery.


The replacement battery unit comes with a special charger. It's designed to fit japanese sockets and run on japanese 110V, so if you want to use it outside of Japan, you'll need an adapter, so that the unit will fit into a socket that is standard to you, and a stepdown converter, if you're living in a country where 220V instead of 110V is used.


Just like the regular AA rechargable batteries, this one too supplies WonderSwan with 1.2V, unlike regular non-rechargable batteries which output 1.5V. This will not have a noticable effect when it comes to play hours.


This whole solution proves that WonderSwan, unlike every single Nintendo product, wasn't trying to squeeze every last peny out of the customer. While in various GameBoy incarnations and the newer Nintendo DS you're either stuck with regular batteries or a rechargable one sold only by Nintendo, WonderSwan gives you two clear choices.


Sure, you can buy regular rechargable AA batteries for your GameBoy, but what about GameBoy Advance SP and Nintendo DS? These are much newer, like the PSP, but that doesn't change the fact of being forced to stick to original product, as third party ones are quite dodgy.


I always loved WonderSwan for its design and the idea behind this handheld. This slim rechargable battery made me love it even more. Most importantly, it will fit all models, so it doesn't mather whether you own a WonderSwan mono, color or SwanCrystal. This little battery will fit them all.


How could have something with such great design and games fail and lose to Nintendo? I don't know. I guess Nintendo will always come on top thanks to their strong licenses. Nintendo DS proved it doesn't have to be more powerful than PSP to outsell it, but then again, if it's all about the design, BanDai should have stayed on the market.


To wrap this up, if you ever spot one of these batteries, don't hesitate and buy it. It will be worth it, you have my word. I've been using it for some time now and I haven't noticed any decreasing performance. Looks like WonderSwan peripherals are designed as good as the console itself.

『 DreamHack Winter 2007 』

The time has come to yet again become one of the collective and connect to a local area network at the world's biggest LAN party - Dreamhack. Sweden, Winter, 29th of November - 2nd of December. Four days of LAN gaming, competitions, freebies, Jolt Cola and loud music.


At DreamHack, like always, the fun is on the inside, so I took a quick snapshot of a cool looking Bionic Commando car parked by the main entrance and ran for the doors. It was raining cats and dogs, but who cares? Once you're in, you're not going to leave for quite a while.


Being a world record holding event, DreamHack is a force to be reckoned with. Over TEN THOUSAND computers connected to one network is something you certainly can brag about.


DreamHack is held at Elmia Exhibition Centre in the city of Jönköping, Sweden. To make it possible to host the world's largest lan party, the premises have been modified to suit our needs, with electrical installations for example.


The cooling system of Elmia utilizes the cold water from the lake Vättern nearby. Even so, it is getting warm inside during DreamHack. Thousand of computers and lan participants form a gigantic heat source. About 3 MegaWatts of electricity is needed to run the place.


So how can a DreamHack participant go for four days without sleep? They can't. Despite the large quantities of coffee and Jolt Cola the gamers still need their beauty sleep, and since we don't want anyone to be stealing our shit, what do we do? That's right. We sleep on the keyboards.


Believe it or not, DreamHack is responsible for about 30% of total Jolt Cola sales in Sweden. People down this stuff like crazy. Some say it's an addiction, some call it tradition. I'd call it the latter, since it doesn't stop at drinking. Jolt Cola cans are traditionally used to build towers and randomly shaped sculptutes. Anything is possible with duct tape.


So what was happening this time anyways? Like always, it's mostly about LAN and Quake World, Counter Strike, Quake 4 Deathmatch and Unreal Tournament. I've heard some people say there were a few dudes playing Warsow but I haven't seen it, so I don't believe it.


An event this big is also a great opportunity for hardware developers to show off their new technologies and brag all day long why you should choose them and not this other company. Symantec was there, Intel was there, Microsoft was there. All giving away freebies and tempting you with their promises.


You could play the newest games at the most powerful machines. Ever wondered what Crysis would run like with everything set on max at some crazy high resolution? I'm not really sure what Intel put in the machines running the Crysis demo, but take my word for it. It ran smoooooth.


The best freebie award goes to Intel. At their booth you could make a video / fool of yourself while you're dancing with some nice, green background behind you. Intel people had two cameras pointed at you and what they recorded, they mixed together into a nice video of your person, multiplied. This was to show you how fast the Core 2 Duo processors are. The movie was mixed in just a few seconds and you were given your very own copy on a nice Intel pendrive.


DreamHack isn't all about computers. If you got tired of your keyboard, muse, and the fact that you were getting your ass handed to you all the time, you could dance your sorrows away at the arcade corner. Beatmania was there, Dance Dance Revolution was there, both in various editions.


After playing both PC and console games [especially Guitar Hero, which was really big] it was time to drive back home and count the freebies. So here they are, starting with the DreamHack handstrap.


Three sets of WoW cards, some straps, Intel's Pendrive, vitamines and condoms. This, plus current issues of the bigger gaming magazines on the market. That's right. They're actually giving you back your ticket money.


While entering the event, everyone was given a nice box containing the starter deck of "World of Warcraft: Heroes of Azeroth" card game. You could play it with the WoW people at the Blizzard booth. I didn't, shame on me.


Since there are so many visitors at DreamHack, you're bound to bump into someone willing to have sex with you, and when that happends, it's best to have a condom ready. If you haven't thought about buying a pack of condoms before you got to DreamHack, you didn't have to worry. The organizers did the thinking for you and free condoms [with a small baggie of lubricating gel and a MANUAL] were given away to all who needed one. As you can see, I needed three, even though I haven't used them. Yet.


Last but not least, a pair of Warhammer t-shirts that were given to me by some nice guys at their booth. I felt really bad since I haven't even played through one whole game [I left in the middle, or actually I was dragged away, leaving my team one man short. Nice].