Canberra VW Get Together

Took part in a small get together today with fellow GolfMkV.com members. Eight of us met up for lunch in Manuka, then cruised a short distance to the Kingston foreshore to take some quick snaps. And quick snaps the proved to be, with the rain bucketing down soon after our arrival! A good cross section of Golf Mk5 models were represented, including GTIs, a GTI Pirelli, R32s, and an Audi S3 just to mix things up a bit :) Unfortunately I couldn't join the cruise part of the day, but I did follow the group down Adelaide Ave and Cotter Rd, which was cool in itself. And I was surprised at how many Kingston restaurant-goers looked up and smiled as we drove past, although that may have just been the awesome sound of the R32s' exhausts :)

Larger photos are available here.

Golf GTI at Mt Panorama, Bathurst

Our Golf GTI parked on the famous Mt Panorama circuit at Bathurst, NSW. We visited Bathurst on the return leg of a Christmas road trip from Canberra to Brisbane. The circuit is a public road, and anyone can drive on it (albeit at a maximum of 60Kmph). What a pity the road isn't more along the lines of Germany's Nurburgring...

New project: cocktail arcade machine!

I've embarked on a new DIY project, which is building a cocktail table arcade machine. It will run old classics such as Galaga, Arkanoid, Donkey Kong etc using a vertical monitor configuration. My original aim was to build a Ms Pacman or Galaga replica, but I have decided instead to create my own design from scratch. I won't be finishing this cabinet as quickly as my first one, rather I plan to take my time and try and achieve a higher quality finish. Whether I achieve this or not remains to be seen!

Work to date includes purchasing a cheap 2nd hand PC and installing front end software and Mame on it. I also managed to completely hide Windows, so that the PC boots straight into the front end without any Windows screens or mouse pointers. I have mounted the 19" Sony monitor in a solid wood frame, and have created two control panels. Lots of work remaining, but at least I'm on my way!

Player 1 control panel

Artwork is sandwiched between a MDF base and 3mm plastic top. I designed the artwork using 'Inkscape' and incorporated some freeware vector images sourced from the web. Note: cutting plastic is a very frustrating experience!

Trackball close-up

Trackball glows green when in use, and red when in standby. I plan to obtain some replacement bolts with smooth rounded heads when I can track some down.

Player 2 control panel

I printed the artwork out using our A4 inkjet printer, and consequently you can see a clear join between the pages. I've ordered an A2 size print out online, which should provide me with a seamless control panel overlay.

Coin mechanism

The real deal this time, no more pressing a button to simulate inserting a coin! You can see the microswitch in the bottom right of the photo... when a coin falls through the mech it hits a wire arm that extends from the microswitch, triggering the switch and registering 1 credit.

19" monitor mounted in frame

This is an old photo- I have tidied the frame up quite a bit since then! The whole thing is screwed and bolted together, with the straps helping to provide additional tension. Actually, I'm not sure if the straps are doing much at all really. They can't hurt I guess :)

When Collector's Editions Aren't

As an unabashed BioWare fan, I was always going to purchase Dragon Age: Origins. When I saw that there was a Collector's Edition on offer, coming in a nice tin case with a cloth map, I immediately decided to sign myself up by pre-ordering a copy. I could quite easily complain about the common debacle of release dates - why did Australia supposedly have to wait until the 5th to get it until EB decided to break it and sell it early? Or the fact that Australians pay far too much for video games - why does it cost $100-$110 dollars compared to $50 in the US when the current exchange rate is $1AUD to 90c US? Both of those are perfectly legitimate questions that I'd love to get a reasonable answer for, but that's not why I'm unhappy right now.

My complaint is that I paid $20 extra for a so called "Collector's edition". A collector's edition that was supposed to come with a tin case and a cloth map. Instead, I received a game in a standard plastic case, wrapped in a cheap cardboard cover. One of the game's two "Game Discs" even came in a clear plastic sleeve as opposed to any sort of container. My bonuses for ordering the collectors edition are:
a) Four in-game items
b) One piece of DLC (that I could purchase separately if I so desired)
c) A bonus disc containing "making of" material.

This is hardly what I'd call a "collector's" edition, nor does it even live up to the claims of what the collector's edition is supposed to contain based on a simple web search. Not delivering the tin case and the cloth map borders of false advertising, and not including a jewel case (or something similar) to keep the two game discs together is very poor form. I cannot voice my disappointment strongly enough at this extremely poor delivery. I consider it highly unlikely that I'll order any more collector's editions if this is the dubious quality of the material that is going to be included in them.

I'll be forwarding this complaint to EA - it's practically misleading to call this a "collector's edition" when it's little more than the game plus downloadable content.

Digital Illusions and Sensible Software: Beginnings

For those of you interested in the early years of the greatest games companies of the Amiga era, check out the following youtube videos.
The first, dating from 1994, takes a look at a young Digital Illusions, and features interviews with Andreas Axelsson, Olof Gustafsson and Joakim Wejdemar. It's fantastic seeing DI when they were a small outfit- worlds apart from today's DICE. Just remember to turn on close captions/subtitles by clicking on the arrow at the bottom right of the video (just under "YouTube" - make sure you start playing the video first).

The second video features an interesting interview with Jon Hare, co-founder of Sensible Software. Sensible created many brilliant games for the C64 and Amiga, including Parallax, Sensible Soccer, SEUCK and Cannon Fodder. The interview is quite well done, and reveals how Sensible was founded by two guys on UK Govt. weekly grant of £40!

Ah the memories...

Battlefield 1943: failed to connect to EA online - solution!

If you too have been experiencing the error message failed to connect to EA online" in Battlefield 1943, don't fear- there is a solution! After many days of frustration at not being able to connect to 'EA online' to play Battlefield 1943 on my Xbox 360, I can now join online games with 100% success rate. How did I do it? Well, thanks to EA's customer support, and various internet posts, I have somehow stumbled upon the magic formula. Firstly, go to ea.com and create an account. Next, link your Xbox gamertag to the EA account (by adding a persona). This should have been simple, but somehow I entered an infinite loop of adding my persona, receiving an email from EA, clicking to confirm, and then entering my persona again. Repeat ad infinitum. Emailing EA solved the problem, with a friendly customer service representative manually linking my gamertag to my EA account. OK, still with me? If this hasn't solved your problem, then the next and final step is to download the Fight Night 4 demo. Yes, that's right, you need to download a demo for a totally unrelated game just so you can play Battlefield 1943. No point in arguing, as it's the only way I managed to solve my connection problem. Download the demo, skip the training, and then try and connect to EA via the game interface. Once you have accepted all the relevant disclaimers and managed to get online, exit the game and load up Battlefield 1943. Surprise, surprise, it now works! Good 'ol EA. You know, I never had this trouble playing COD4 online...

If this has been of assistance to you, please leave a comment. Oh, and feel free to click on one of my sponsor's messages... the GTI is gonna need new tyres real soon! ;)

PS. I should mention that during this process I also tried the 'change your Xbox 360 clock to 2005' trick as suggested by EA- it didn't make any difference for me at all.

Monkey Island is back! ("Look behind you! A three-headed monkey!")

I've only just heard the fantastic news that Monkey Island is about to return to our computer and console screens! Monkey Island 1 and 2 were two of my favourite games of all time, and I spent countless hours playing them on my old Amiga. If I remember correctly, I played Monkey Island using dual floppy disk drives, progressing to a hard drive in time for Monkey Island 2. Both games struck the right balance between story line and puzzles, and contained the best humour I have experienced in any game (then or now).

There are plenty of websites that detail the new Monkey Island games, but by way of a quick summary...

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition is an updated version of the original game, which will be available soon on PC and Xbox Live Arcade. Lucasarts look to have done a great job in maintaining the feel of the original through the new version's updated graphics and speech. At any time you can toggle between the original and new version, which I think is a fantastic idea. I am definitely looking forward to playing the updated version as soon as it's released, and reviving some old memories (and no-doubt frustrations too!). Oh, and take some time to watch the video on Lucasarts site - it's very interesting.

Tales of Monkey Island by Telltale Games is due for release in early July, and is a new story told in 5 parts. I'd normally be apprehensive about any new Monkey Island game staying true to the spirit of original, but apparently Telltale has lots of former Lucasarts employees, and they have remained close to Lucasarts and Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert. In fact, Ron Gilbert has an interesting write up on his blog. It's great to see a new Monkey Island game, and fingers crossed it will live up to the original two.

I was going to close by saying "they sure don't make 'em like they used to", but I guess that's not true anymore... :)

Saints Row 2: Best Character Designer Ever

Hi all, MrPigeon here again. I've recently started playing Saints Row 2, a recent and heavily GTA-inspired game for the XBox360 and PC. It's getting a lot of good press for adding some of the much-needed "fun" that was lacking in GTA4.. things such as the rampages and wacky side missions - which were eschewed in favour of 'realism' in the latest GTA - are all present and accounted for in SR2. But one of its biggest features is its character creator.. at the start of the game, you get to design your player character with one of the most comprehensive tools out there. If you can think of a face, chances are, you can do a pretty good job of it.

I decided that I may as well take advantage of this freedom to be able to design myself, since people who look as hideous as I do generally don't feature too often in video game entertainment. Call me crazy, but I think I did a pretty good likeness - it's rather spooky seeing myself in all these cutscenes!

Now I'd caught the character creation bug, I decided to try my hand at creating certain other people I know, starting with the owner of this wonderful blog, Ferris himself.


Chuffed with my skills, I then decided to try my hand at Dave, one of Ferris's work lackeys.. but I was not quite as successful this time around..


.. and I don't think I got our other friend Crabby right at all..

Sniper teams at Barack Obama's inauguration?

Deviating from my usual themes of cars and games (with the odd recipe thrown in), I thought I'd share something interesting I came across yesterday.  Gizmodo featured an article about an amazing 1,474 megapixel panoramic image taken during Barack Obama's inauguration.  It is seriously impressive, allowing the user to zoom into the image to reveal greater detail - similar to Google Earth in a way. After firstly zooming in on Obama, the second thing I did was to - quite naturally - go looking for military snipers.  And I found some!  Zooming in on one of the buildings near the centre of the image revealed a group of interesting guys...

The most interesting thing is that the US appears to have outsourced the protection job to the British SAS.  Don't believe me?  Here is a photo of the British SAS taken during the famous Iranian embassy siege in the 80s.  Eerily similar eh?

Of course, once I 'discovered' the sniper team I went searching the internet to see if anybody else had found them.  The answer was yes, and not just this sniper team but other potential candidates too. Oh well, so much for a FerrisGTI exclusive...

Game On! report

Hi all, MrPigeon here. Ferris has kindly let me return to his blog because I wanted to point out a wonderful exhibition I recently visited at the Brisbane State Library called Game On!

Hailing originally from London and now in its first showing in Australia, the exhibit is a gloriously detailed history of videogames, from the very first games developed on machines bigger than Yo Momma, to the latest masterpieces on consoles like the XBox 360 and Playstation 3. No stone is left unturned.. even the humble game-and-watch gets its moment in the sun, and consoles which never even saw the light of day in Australia (such as the PC Engine) are on display.

Arriving at the first floor of the exhibition is a jaw-dropping sight. Legendary arcade titles (think Pacman, Donkey Kong, Gradius, Space Invaders, Centipede..) are all present, in their original cabinets, with controls and artwork intact. Even more recent arcade games, such as Virtua Fighter and the Neo Geo multi-game systems, are all present. There's an entire table full of every handheld you can think of, from the earliest game-and-watch titles to the Nintendo DS and PSP. And every console is also on display, each with one of the bigger titles loaded up. I almost fainted when I saw an Atari Jaguar running Tempest 2000, one of my favorite games ever.

The best part is.. everything's on free-play. You can wander up to any of the arcade games or consoles and have a bash. Every game featured that has a two-player mode even has two controllers set up. I became quite proud when I saw that my Ms Pacman high score remained unbeaten when I checked again laqter in the day.

Then you head upstairs, and it's time to prepare for another jaw-dropping moment. The upper floor is absolutely enormous, chock-full of free-to-play TV consoles featuring all the legendary and most influential titles throughout gaming history. There had to have been at least 70 or more wall terminals with games. An Amiga running Monkey Island, a PC running the old Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy text adventure (complete with old-school early-90s keyboard.. no Windows key here!).. a Dreamcast running Rez, a Playstation running the Japanese Katamari Damacy.. an Atari 2600 running Adventure, a Wii running Wii Sports. Ferris would be in heaven, because there was even a wall dedicated to the heroes of the Commodore 64 music scene, with headphones that allowed you to listen to classics by Ben Daglish and Anthony Lees, amongst others.

It wasn't all just playable games, though.. there were exhibits that described the development of some of the more influential titles. My personal favourite was the display of the actual design documents, play flow diagrams and internal emails regarding the development of the nightclub level in Max Payne. Even the clothes that were digitized to become Max's costume were on display. A similar design display for GTA3 was also very impressive.

I spent the whole day at the exhibit, and could've easily spent several more. If you are anywhere remotely near Brisbane between now and February 15.. GO VISIT. This is absolute gamer nirvana and probably the best thing I've ever spent $18 on. Wonderful!

Taiwanese-style Chicken Stir-fry Recipe (台式家常雞柳)

Hello everyone, it's Mrs Ferris here with another recipe! This time it is one of my all-time favorite Taiwanese dishes: chicken stir-fry (台式家常雞柳 in Chinese). I still make it all the time now because Ferris and I both love it so much! Traditionally, Taiwanese would just use a single vegetable in this dish (eg. bok choy), but I have modified the recipe to include a mix of different veges. Hope you enjoy this delicious and aromatic meal!

Ingredients (serves 6):

- 650g Chicken breasts, trimmed and sliced into 8cm strips
- 5 Garlic cloves, sliced
- 100g Baby corn, sliced in half lengthways
- 2 Broccoli florets, chopped
- 3 Bunches Bok Choy, chopped
- 100g Green beans (optional), trimmed and chopped
- 1 Carrot, thinly sliced
- 8 Tablespoons Salt-reduced soy sauce
- 4 Heaped tablespoons Corn flour
- 6 Tablespoons Maggi oyster sauce
- 6 Tablespoons Olive oil
- 100ml Water
- 1/2 Teaspoon Chili powder (optional)
- Cooked Jasmine rice, to serve

Directions:
1. Combine chicken, soy sauce and chili powder well in a large bowl. Add corn flour and use hands to combine chicken with corn flour. Ensure all chicken strips are evenly coated with corn flour and that there are no clumps of flour.

2. Heat 2.5 tablespoons oil in a wok over high heat until hot. Add half the garlic and stir for 5 seconds, then add half the chicken. Stir and toss frequently to make sure chicken strips do not stick together. When chicken (and garlic) are cooked through, transfer to a bowl. Reheat the wok with 2.5 tablespoons oil and repeat with remaining chicken and garlic.

3. Add 1 tablespoon oil to hot wok. Add broccoli and baby corn and stir fry for 1 minute. Add green beans, bok choy and carrot. Add water and oyster sauce. Stir until sauce is well combined with the vegetables.

4. Return chicken and garlic to wok and stir to combine chicken and vegetables. Cook until vegetables are just tender.

5. Taste and add salt if desired. Serve warm with cooked rice.

Tips:
1. Coat chicken with corn flour just before cooking. If the chicken is coated with corn flour too long before cooking, the chicken will taste floury.

2. Drain chicken strips from water before marinating them with soy sauce, so that when they are added to the heated wok, the hot oil won't spit too much.

3. To ensure vegetables stay crunchy, after you add the vegetables to the hot wok, work quickly when adding other ingredients to the wok. Maggi Oyster Sauce is a bit hard to pour out of the bottle, so it might be a good idea to measure and pour it into a cup before cooking.

4. This recipe also works well with other types of Asian greens.

Ingredients all ready to go

Stir-frying the chicken

With vegetables added it should look something like this!

Far Cry 2: Malaria and Mike's Bar

I've just bought a copy of Far Cry 2 and have played it for perhaps an hour.  First impressions?  Graphics are incredible: everything looks extremely realistic, and it's nice to see details like bushes and grass moving in the wind, and accurate shadows everywhere.  The framerate is high, with no noticeable slowdown yet.  Controls are pretty good... not quite up to Call of Duty 4 standard, but perfectly adequate.  Negatives?  Well, one so far- getting stuck very early on in the game where I needed to get to Mike's Bar to obtain pills to keep my malaria in check.  A cut scene tells you to proceed to the bar quickly to get the pills... fair enough I thought, drop everything and let's go. But to my frustration halfway to the bar I would have a malarial attack, pass out, and be returned to sit through the entire cut scene again.  Each time I would set out and try a different route, visit a safe house first etc, but nothing made any difference and I would pass out each time.  After cursing the game for half an hour I thought "stuff Mike's Bar and my malaria - I'm just going to go and look for some hidden diamonds".  Lo and behold once I'd found some diamonds my way was clear to drive to Mike's Bar... I got there with no problems at all.  It all seemed a bit illogical to me, and contrary to my expectation of Far Cry 2 being a non-linear game.  I suppose this was all part of the structured 'training' section of the game, but all it has managed to do is make me think this whole Far Cry 2 "malaria" thing might ruin what looks to be a great game...

Building my first arcade cabinet: Part X

A few more photos, now that I have added some instruction cards for old-school authenticity :)

Building my first arcade cabinet: Part IX

The marquee is complete!  I purchased some perspex (cut to size) from Eddie Walewicz Glass in Fyshwick, and spent an hour or so cutting out the speaker holes and drilling holes for screws.  Another hour or so was spent trimming the three separate print outs and making sure they lined up with the perspex and the front of the cabinet when assembled.  I think the end result is pretty good... it's not perfect (like the rest of the cabinet :), but I managed to achieve the look and quality of finish I was aiming for.  Note that my marquee isn't backlit, although the photos give that impression due to the camera flash. One thing that's a bit hard to see from the photos is the piece of tinted perspex I have placed over the monitor.  It makes a huge difference to the look of the cabinet... it certainly looks more professional and authentic now.  So, just one thing left to do, which is to source some black rubber edging... and then I will be completely finished! :)

Building my first arcade cabinet: Part VIII

Just a quick update today. I've finally finished (and printed) my marquee design!  The image above is a low-res version, with the black circles representing the location of the speaker covers. Using Inkscape (a cool open source vector art package) and borrowing some images from Arcade Art, I think I've managed to produce something that looks presentable.  I exported the completed vector image as three separate bitmaps (around 5Mb each), and printed them onto three pages of Canon glossy paper.  The print quality from our Canon MX300 printer is pretty amazing... I just hope I can somehow join the separate pages together so that it looks seamless.  Now all I have to do is track down some clear plastic sheets and work out a way to affix it to my cabinet...

Building my first arcade cabinet: Part VII

I couldn't resist uploading a few more photos! Last night I added a metal kickplate and decorative strip on the front of the control panel. I think they make a huge difference to the visual appeal of the cabinet. Tonight I attached the rear panel, after first mounting the external power switch to it.  At least the cats can't get inside the cabinet now!  These latest photos show the illuminated buttons on the front panel, which I have configured to select, pause, and exit games.  Very handy indeed, and they look pretty cool as well :)Not much left to do now to complete the cabinet- I need to track down some rubber edging, order some glass/plexi/lexan (not sure which one) to cover the screen, and create and print some artwork for the top panel.  I'll give myself plenty of time to organise these finishing touches, as I'm not sure I can keep going at the pace I had set myself!  Besides, the cabinet is now fully functional, and I'm keen to get some game time in... :)

Building my first arcade cabinet: Part VI

Almost done!  I moved the cabinet into the house (with some help - thanks Anthony!), and then  finished off the wiring and assembly.  I had to overcome a few last minute issues, mainly caused by not allowing enough room under the control panel for the buttons and microswitches etc, but at the end I managed to get everything together.  I now have a button connected to the PC's power switch, and with everything plugged into a power board it is only two button-presses to start the arcade cabinet...  turn the power on at the wall, then press the button connected to the PC's power switch.  I can get this down to one button press if I buy a smart power board, such as this one from Jaycar. 

The ugly bare wood you can see on the front of the control panel will be covered by some nice metal sheeting, which I will also use for a kick plate.

Oh, and for those that were wondering, the first game I played on the cabinet was Galaxian :)

Building my first arcade cabinet: Part V

Everything is progressing well... spent many hours today building the control panel.  It all took much longer than I expected, which is pretty much par for the course when building an arcade cabinet!  Attaching the vinyl overlay was a painful experience, and something I'm not keen to repeat in a hurry.  Wiring was fun though, and everything went according to plan.  I'm now at the stage where I can attach the control panel, front panel, and rear panel to the main cabinet... just need to haul the cabinet in from the garage!  Then it's just a few finishing things: installing an external power button (connected to my PC's power button), adding a metal kick-plate, and sourcing some rubber for the edging.

Control panel (well, the beginnings of one anyway...)

Microswitches and spare joystick top

Buttons and Joysticks installed

Front panel with coin button

Control panel all wired up to I-PAC controller.  Everything worked first time!

Finished control panel with vinyl overlay