Category Archives: games

writing an ajax app for Sequence

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Yesterday I attended Ted Neward‘s game design session at nofluff. It inspired me to begin to implement the game sequence in an ajax app. It will be a private app since I only plan to play it with some friends. But it will be hosted somewhere on my website so it can be accessed from anywhere.

Sequence is a board game my husband and I often played with two of our friends. It’s their favorite game. When I started thinking last night about potentially creating a web version so we don’t need to be physically at their house to play, I became very excited. I believe I may create something that will work with the help of php, mysql + jQuery (ajax).

Why this idea excites me

  • Before I started as a professional Java developer, I always coded in php & mysql (somewhat a LAMP developer on the side). However most of my old applications and sites are down. I no longer have the desire to maintain them. Now this is a great opportunity and incentive for me to go back to php & mysql and write something I enjoy.
  • PHP has a special place in my heart. Just a while ago, a coworker asked for my help to create him something to help with the manual text file processing he has to do every month. It only needs to be quick & dirty app. I threw together a php app in half an hour for him. It was super cool. He loved it.
  • jQuery is my favorite javascript library. You don’t have to look far in my blog to find that out. So the more I get to work with it, the happier I am.
  • I can also involve my husband on this project. Even though he’s not a programmer but he knows this game as well as I do. Normally he doesn’t have much of stake in my apps but this time he can be my lab rat :)
  • With this project, I also get to play with UI. I started as a web designer. So CSS & HTML have been my passion. There will be quite a bit of UI involved in the designing of this game.
  • It’s fun because it will be very useful. I very much look forward to the day that I can have our friends joining the game.
  • I can blog about it! I may not share my final product with the public but I will definitely share my progress & experience. Hopefully there will be challenges where I can learn some new stuff.

Last night I started brainstorming with my hushand as how I want the game to work. I started table designing and UI designing. This morning I put together a very prototype version of the UI.
sequence phase 001
I leveraged jQuery’s “redmond” theme. This way I can use all of the cool jQuery UI widgets and benefit from reusing its css for elements I want to style and create a semi prof looking app in no time.

ePSXe FF IX chocobo air garden issue

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I spent a lot of time last night looking for the chocobo air garden on ePSXe emulator playing the final fantasy IX.

The chocobo air garden is the last location for the chocobo hot and cold game and before you get there for the first time, it could be randomly at one of these five locations.
final fantasy ix chocobo air garden locations
While your flying golden chocobo is above the black dot (shadow), if you feed her a dead pepper, she will go soaring in the air and finds the air garden. I wanted to find the air garden so I could fight the game’s toughest optional boss Ozma.

Everything was in place but I could not find the darn black dot at any of the locations. I finally found some information saying in the ePSXE emulator version of the game there is NO BLACK DOT.

So what I did to find the air garden is to park my chocobo outside of Alexandria. If you look at the location at the lower right of the map, it’s at the Alexandria plateau. Basically I just fly my chocobo at the location where the black dot WOULD HAVE BEEN if it showed, feed her a dead pepper. If the air garden is there, she lands in the garden otherwise she drops back down. If you don’t find it the first time, go back inside of Alexandria. Then come out of Alexandria and repeat the same step. Once I tried this route, I found the air garden on my second try. Who would have known?

Fortunately after you have found the chocobo air garden, it will also be marked on the map. Thank god!

FFIX – sharing my save

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For the past a few weeks, I’ve been replaying final fantasy IX on the playstation emulator epsxe. I really love this game because it’s my very first final fantasy game. Sure you may argue it’s not the best final fantasy game but it definitely has a special place in my heart. While replaying the game, I did not want to start from scratch. I have played the game from scratch on the playstation console and have beat it quite completely before (except for the run for Exculibar II). So I started with an early save from gamefaq.com that has 99 of all items from disc one. Now I have a save I would like to share that is on disc four.

Format
This save is in mcr format and can be used on the epsxe emulator. You may also convert it using MemcardRex.exe. Although it’s on disc four, there is still quite a bit playing potential. I think I took care of most of the tedious work and you may use it to complete much of the side quests in the game.

Placement in the game
It is saved after getting the invincible on disc four prior to lifa tree. The save is outside of chocobo forest on the world map with your golden chocobo and the air ship next to you. Choco’s beak level is at 99. I have acquired all of the chocograph but didn’t finish all of them. I just hunted the ones that upgraded my chocobo. I have just visited the Mognet Central and Alexandria and is ready to deliver Kupo’s letter to Atla in order to start finishing the Mognet Central side quest. I have also finished feeding all of the friendly monsters while I was leveling up so it’s ready for you to fight Ozma – the toughest optional boss in the game.

Characters
This save contains almost 99 of all items. This includes all armors and weapons. Therefore all of the characters have their ultimate weapons. And yes Steiner has Exculibar II.

Zidane
Lvl: 92
Abilities: All learned, all equipped except auto-potion
Skills: All learned
To do: His Thievery magic still only does around 1800 damage because I never used his steal ability much in the game given I’ve already had 99 of all items there wasn’t much incentive. If you wish to work on this, I recommend that you go you Ispen’s castle because you may get up to 6 successful steals against the enemy Gargoyle.

Dagger
Lvl: 86
Abilities: All learned, all equipped except boost, healer, auto-potion (feel free to equip if you wish)
White magic: All learned
Summons: All learned
Note: Summoning Atomos does 9999 damage to all Yans

Steiner
Lvl: 85
Abilities: All learned, all equipped except auto-potion
Sword art: All learned
Note: Climhazzard does 9999 damage to all Yans

Quina
Lvl: 94
Abilities: All learned exception millionaire and healer (does not seem like they are needed), all equipped
Blue magic: Goblin Punch, LV5 Death, LV3 Def-less, Doom, Roulette, Aqua Breath, Mighty Guard, Matra Magic, Bad Breath, Limit Glove, 1,000 Needles, Night, Angel’s Snack, Frog Drop, White Wind, Auto-Life
Note: Frog Drop does around 9200 damage
To do: Continue to raise his level to try to max out his Frog Drop ability. He’s also missing a few blue magic.

Vivi
Lvl: 82
Abilities: All learned, all equipped
Black magic: All learned

Freya
Lvl: 81
Abilities: All learned, all equipped
Dragon abilities: All learned
Note: Dragon’s Crest does a guaranteed 9999 damage.

Eiko
Lvl: 79
Abilities: All learned except healer, all equipped
White magic: All learned
Summons: All learned

Amarant
Lvl: 81
Abilities: All learned, all equipped except healer and auto-potion
Flair Abilities: All learned
Note: Throw great weapons to do 9999 damage.

To Dos
Please check game faq side quest FAQs to see how they can be accomplished.
Finish all chocograph
Revive the Mognet Central
Fight Ozma
Stellazzio: Zodiac Coins
Many more side quests
Obviously finish the game and watch the awesome ending

=== Download the save ====
Added two more saves on the memory card 7/21/2010
1) Right before you may fight Ozma on Alexandria Plateau. Check the map to see where Chocobo Air Garden is. I guarantee you may beat Ozma in less than 2 rounds. Just do Zidane Thievery, Freya Dragon Crest, Amarant Throw Ultimate Weapon, Quina Frog Drop. Enjoy :)
2) Right before the last boss fight. Beat the game and watch the ending.

As a bonus, I’ve been looking around for a screenshot of all of Stellazzio coins labeled in Queen Stella’s house. Since I did not find one, I created my own. Feel free to use it to figure out which coin(s) you are missing.
Stellazzio Coins on Queen Stella's house Final Fantasy IX

finally got a Wii!

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we finally got a Wii yesterday! andy got up at 4:30 to get in line in toys r us to get it for me. i was so touched. he never forgot that was the birthday gift i wanted and never gave up trying. it was a month late but nevertheless a huge surprise. he also got a second controller and two nunchuks. not knowing that the wii came with a nunchuk, we got an extra one. so i’m selling it on ebay :)

i thought i heard the garage door open early morning yesterday but was too tired/sick to get up & check. andy came in around 9:30 to bring me breakfast and a huge bag from toys r us. i couldn’t believe it. how sweet was that! i am still sick and was coughing really hard but i couldn’t resist trying out the wii. we love the boxing and tennis game. the boxing game really gets me going. i get sweaty only after 3 rounds. amazing! i must be playing it hard too coz i beat andy every time we tried LOL . he also bought the wii zelda game. i was so wore out afterwards and went to bed at 6pm.

now i’m awake and my arms are so sore and totally want to do boxing again LMAO

Gamespot

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I found gamespot a great community for video game sharing etc. This weekend I’m going to complete my game collection list there.

Visit me there and add me as a friend if you are a member. If you like to play games, you should create an account like daynah :)

Also I really want a Wii now!! Daynah said we can connect our Wiis via the internet and play games like tennis vs. each other. How cool would that be

Wii Wii Wii
Awesome -> http://www.wiiworkout.net/
Not -> http://www.wiidamage.com/2006/12/05/tv-skewered-by-wii-remote/
Ouch -> http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/20/flying-wiimote-busts-60-tv/

FF XII rants

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i beat final fantasy XII a few days ago. overall i found the game rather disappointing. this is the first final fantasy series i didn’t like. the only thing i really like about it is the battle system. and that is pretty sad.

==do NOT continue if you don’t want spoilers==
the story IMO sucked. i never felt for any characters. the stories behind the characters all left much to be desired. maybe one of the reasons why the story sucked so much is that it draws much parallels to FFX storyline and it’s inferior in every aspect. so vaan’s brother died and he’s looking for the meaning of his life. did he find it compared to tidus from FFX, i don’t feel he has grown up at all. balthier’s dad is Cid – and balthier killed him. big deal.. i didn’t feel like i cared nor did it seem he did. basch is mindless knuckle head and all he knew was “oh my god, i had to protect my master.” – not even worth to wash auron’s feet. ashe.. stop the “uh”! jeez

i was also disappointed there wasn’t any love stories. the love story in FF9 clinched me so much i cry every time i watch the ending.

and the antagonists sucked, too. where are the traditional awfully annoying antagonists like Seifer and Seymour you feel satisfied to beat the heck out of them every time. altho my favorite antagonist is FF9′s kuja – coz he’s cute and you actually feel sorry for him at the end.

the most disappointing thing is the ending. like when did penelo became the ever important character to give the narratives it didn’t even show ashe’s ceremony becoming the queen i was hoping they showed something more after the long credits like they usually do but the only thing i found was “the end”.

other disappointing things about FFXII
- where is the addictive side game that started from FFVIII’s triple triaid the hunt was ok for a while but it’s not something you can always do and the rewards SUCKED.. what’s the point of doing them
- i can’t believe nothing gives you damage limit break in this game. i thought after FFX it’s pretty much a standard. the quickening takes forever – there is no guaranteed damage.. i personally just like to hack the enemies down arg.
- because the characters can be as generic as you want them in this game. there is no specialized ultimate weapon like in FFX.
- the world map is so one dimentional. you don’t get the airship until the very end of the game. oh well why you need the airship anyway. you can’t board it from anywhere. teleporting is an easier way to transport anyway. i’ve been waiting all game for the mysterious location of the map – an entire new atmosphere to explore.