Magic Pen Review: Full Featured Crayon Physics Game in Flash!!!

I don't normally review or feature games on this blog (my philosophy is, I feature hacks, tweaks, and tricks to boost your productivity on the computer so you have more time and resources to play your games when you've got the free time. What games you play are up to you), but back when I discovered Crayon Physics, I could hardly contain my excitement.

Two months later, seems the original Crayon Physics still hasn't been fully released, but not to worry, as Newgrounds user AleGui has released Magic Pen, which seems to do all the stuff Crayon Physics Deluxe has promised to do, but it's not only available right now, it's all in Flash! No downloading a separate program at all!

If you remember how to play Crayon Physics, Magic Pen will feel very familiar, but there are new features there that will turn your brain knobs anew. I wish there was more of a tutorial on how to use links and hinges, but I guess that's part of the fun!

Nyko Frontman Guitar for Nintendo Wii Review (& Circuit City online)

Two reviews today, first of the product, then of the place from which I bought it.

Since getting Guitar Hero III for the Wii late last year, my roommate and I have been itching to be able to play head to head and cooperatively, especially since a handful of songs can only be unlocked during multiplayer. Unfortunately, it wasn't until last month that standalone guitars hit the stores.

The official Activision Gibson guitars that are identical to the guitars sold with the game were unfortunately being sold for an exorbitant 70 dollars, which was ridiculous since the guitars still needed a Wiimote, sold separately.

The only third-party guitar out right now is the Nyko Frontman guitar, which was selling online and at Circuit City for 50 dollars, much more doable. I wasn't crazy about getting a third party controller since I'd found myself really not liking the official Rock Band guitar, and I knew I'd be very sensitive to using a different guitar. However, the price was right.


The guitar is great, and definitely a better value than the official guitar. The strum bar snaps better than the official guitar, in my opinion (which is the opposite of the Rock band guitar, which is way softer). The whammy bar is a little stiffer, but I think it'll loosen up with continuous use.

The fret buttons ARE on the softer side, and this was perhaps the part that felt the most different from the official guitar. They're spaced basically the same, though recessed a little bit more. I'd say it's somewhere between the official guitar and the Rock Band version.

One odd thing is that the + and - buttons were switched, which is annoying because the + button is in a far less accessible place than before, which makes it hard when you need to pause the game quickly.

Build quality was solid. It's lighter than the official guitar, though it's about an inch or two longer. This creates a different weight distribution, where the Nyko's heavier towards the neck. Speaking of neck, the neck cannot be removed like the official axe, which makes it harder to take on trips.

The seam that runs along the top edge of the guitar also seems to be narrower, which helps because the seam in the official guitar hit my thumb's joint and caused me to develop a callous.

The guitars, by the way, come in two colors: white and yellow. The box indicates what color is inside, but there was no way for me to select it when ordering online (I got yellow). The package also comes with two pick guard colors, white and black. I stuck with the black.

Overall, I'm happy so far with the guitar. It takes some getting used to, of course, but it's surprisingly easy to pick up after having played with the original guitar for 6 months. Highly recommended, at least until the official guitar lowers its price.
Circuit City

As previously mentioned, I ended up ordering the product online at Circuit City. They offered free shipping on items over 25 dollars, so at 50 dollars, this was a large item being shipped free. Awesome, since none of the Circuit City stores in the area seem to carry the item at all.

They luckily offer ordering without setting up an account, and it worked smoothly and quickly even without doing so. I received a confirmation email after ordering, and you can check the status of your order online by entering your order number (all of this would be easier if you'd signed up for an account online, but I didn't feel like it).

The main surprise came when my guitar arrived two days after I ordered. Why surprise? The site had indicated to me that it would take two WEEKS! Honestly, I figure that's just Circuit City covering their butts, but I also admit there's something about beating expectations, even if they're low.

Overall, a very satisfied customer!

Crayon Physics: HOLY COW!

Solve physics puzzle games by drawing shapes with a crayon in Crayon Physics.

I ran into this game through my usual blog reading and quickly fell in love with its innovation and simplicity. Only the original demo of the game is available, with the Deluxe full version of the game that you can see below being available in the near future.

Still though, the demo version works quite well, is super fun, and works like a CHARM when used with a Wacom Tablet (or even better, their Cintiq, like I use!)

My Partner and I

Before moving along, I wanted to create a more distinct profile of both myself and my computer, so as to better inform you reader about where I'm coming from, what types of enhancements I'll probably be looking at more than others, and how far I can go.

My PC configuration (in a nutshell):

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0ghz (single core, circa 2004)
• Some compatible motherboard I can't be bothered to remember right now.
• 2 gb of DDR SDRAM
• ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9600 128mb RAM, AGP 8x (circa 2004 as well)
• ATI Rage 128 32mb RAM (to power 3rd display)
• SoundBlaster Live! Value sound card (circa... 2001??)
• LiteOn DVD+-RW 8x burner (won't eject sans paperclip, otherwise works perfect)
• Generic 5.1 speaker system (that isn't running true 5.1, re: sound card)
• primary display 24in widescreen LCD from Acer, 1920x1200
• secondary display 17in LCD from NEC, 1280x1024
• tertiary display, 15in Wacom Cintiq LCD drawing tablet(bought used for 700 bucks cash!), aka the gift that keeps on giving.
• Labtec wireless keyboard and mouse.

As you can see, this is a very middle of the road hardware configuration (with the exception of the 3 displays, one of which is a high-end though aging LCD drawing tablet). The last time I invested in earnest on my PC was before college in 2002, when I built my very first rig. Since then I've just swapped aging components out with newer (but not bleeding edge) ones, and it's managed to chug along nicely.

I've contemplated other major upgrades recently, but since doing so would require replacing everything but the hard drives, monitors, sound and optical drive, I'm going to table that for at least a while longer. I'm more seriously considering getting an iMac for video editing and productivity as well as a dedicated next-gen console for gaming. I've been on a PC for so long that it's bittersweet if/when I leave it. I know I certainly wouldn't have as much fun customizing such a setup as I do now, but perhaps I'm getting too old anyway (maybe I should just start learning to fix up my car).

Anyway, back to it. The following are the more important current software running on my machine. Some of these are very recent additions and I hope to go back in the future to recount how I came upon using them.

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 (really awaiting SP3)
• Firefox 2.x (come on 3.0 and no memory leaks!) and Thunderbird with Lightning
• Winamp 5.3
• OpenOffice 2.2
• Most Adobe Products (AfterEffects, Premiere, Photoshop)
• Flash 8
• Miranda IM for instant messaging
• uTorrent
• Autohotkey (my savior!)

As for myself, I am 24 minus 4 weeks, living in Los Angeles as a freelance animator/motion/graphics designer. I used to be a hardcore gamer when I was younger, and most recently purchased Valve's Orange Box (and will continue to be a Valve fanboy for the foreseeable future). In fact, I bought my ATI radeon in order to play Half Life 2, and it came with a coupon for a free version of said game. Nowadays I prefer to play older games that I know will run rock solid on my computer (Warcraft 3?), but I must ackowledge that most of my computer knowledge I learned along the way has been related to gaming, until just now, when apparently I'm just tweaking my computer for its own sake.

Given how my PC's certainly no spring chicken (and probably hasn't been for a good while), doing these tweaks probably add a bit more life to the machine (I don't have a name for it, as dear as it is to me, unfortunately, and it's probably inappropriate to name it during its middle age).

Anyway, now you know where I'm coming from, so we can move forward together.