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  • What's new in my videogames pages?

    Wednesday, july 2nd : new version online
    The games/consoles is now redesigned according to the site new identity; and i've included more content. I hope i'll be able to update this part as often as i wish with new content, reviews and columns...
    This part will soon be functionnal
     

     
    > > Friday, January 18th, 2008 - Happy new year *m ^_^ m*
       Also published in : Robots   Pocket computers   Computers   Arcade games   and in the main page   

    Happy new year everyone!

    The year 2008 will see will be many important events all around the world : elections in many countries, olympics in China, crucial economic evolution all over the planet, increasing technological progress reinforced with newcoming companies from emerging countries... But if i may, for today i'll just focus on two events at my own personal scale :)

    First of all, i should leave Paris and move to the south of France. This is a significant change...
    i still allow me a few days before i switch to "project management" mode and start getting involved in the moving. There will be a lot to do.
    I also think this should not mean much of a change regarding my site. Maybe (i said *maybe*!) the change of life will leave me with enough free time to update the site more often, but i doubt it for now. Time will tell!

    Now, second event : my site will "officially" turn 10 year old this year!!
    It is actually a little older (since 1996 i would say), but i can't find any trace of it prior to 1998, that's why i consider it "officially" open in 1998. I may change my mind some day, tho :)

    Since it was created, the site has been hosted at 3 different places, starting as a sub-section of a friend's personal site.
    It had 4 different graphic designs, including a few years when every section had a completely different design each, while the current design and unified layout dates back 2003.
    Wanna see what it was like since 2001? check this link Only the versions hosted at the current address are available there, and i can't find the ealier designs on any of my computers, so i think it is still somewhere on one of my old computers; i'll try and find it whenever i can.

    The contents also evolved : while the first version was already a mix between my graphic work and other topics i was interested in, my collections only appeared in version 2, at first as pure HTML pages, next as PHP, yet i still don't use a database.
    PHP allowed my to make the site management a little simpler, as i've also developped a few very simple tools for that purposer (like the very basic weblog function i'm using right now to type this update!).
    Now there are still a lot of things i'd love to add/change/update. I have already begun working on new contents, mostly in french but i also have ideas for new contents or sections in english.

    There has already been a lot of work involved since 1998 : contents management, web design, php development...
    From the site, i also for a few commissionned works, as well as some new friends all around the world!

    I cannot say right now what i will actually be able to work on this year...

    Anyway, for this 10 year anniversary, my thanks go to everyone that visited the site, found information there, contacted me to discuss the topics i present. These are the very reason why this site exists! Thank you everyone, and a happy new year 2008!




    > >Thursday, october 6th 2005 : Wireless gaming (and more?)

    I've just read two announces from Nintendo (yesterday) and Sony (today) that they were both going to open free wireless accesspoint in Japan for their respective handheld game consoles. Nintendo's philosophy will be to distribute USB dongles that will turn any PC into a wireless router for the DS, and they will of course promote this technology among game resellers and related businesses in order to rapidly build a large community of public access points. What Sony will do is yet unclear to me, but the goal is the same : provide PSP owners with a grid of free access points to enhance the PSP gaming experience.
    As things should go, those access points should be just regular internet access points, only dedicated to specific machines. It's already known that the PSP comes with a built-in internet browser (with it's latest firmware version), so, on top of free network gaming, we're actually talking free mobile internet access here.
    The PSP is also known for hosting a quite decent homebrew dev community. Is it just me, or would it be expectable to see Skype-like software appear someday? Skype is already available to a number of PDA users, yet the handheld gaming market targets a wider audience. It would be very interesting if wireless handheld gaming functions turned out to be actually usable (and used!) as a free mobile phone network. Not only would it bring free VoIP to a large audience, but, breaking the rules of regular national cellphone network carriers, it would actually benefit the "global village".
    Sorry no link to the news yet, but i'll edit this entry to add some soon.


    > > Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 - Arcade and console gaming collide...

    Well the news was widely conveyed by the major news sites on August 22, but obviously, i was more interested in my soon-to-come holidays at the time, so i missed it back then.
    So Square-Enix, born from the merging or Square and Enix (would could have thought?!), two major RPG editors, is ranked 2nd biggest japanese videogames maker in this news from Reuters, and it's the perfect example of how domestic game systems took over the video game market. It is now planning to absorb Taito, once a giant in arcade video games, and creator of such video games myths as Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble and Puzzle Bobble. In the same Reuters article, i've also learned that one of Taito major shareholders (36.02%) was Kyocera, an electronics and semi-conductors company that also made several attempts in the pocket computers business.
    As the buying operation takes place on the stock exchange market, Squre-Enix has announced it would dropped the plan if it failed to buy at least 67% of Taito's shares.

    Square Enix is thus acquiring it's entry ticket to the world of arcade, slot machines and "amusement parks*".
    Square already approached the arcade world in the 90's actually, as they developped the Ehrgeiz fighting game, that was distributed by Namco.
    Namco, by the way, is now property of Bandai, as i've also learned in the Reuters news.

    So, what will happen of the TAITO name if the deal is completed, i guess it's too early to tell. Also, both companies have their own cute-mascot, namely Chocobo for Square-Enix and Bubblun for Taito. I wonder what will come out of breeding those two...


    The news on IGN

    * As most major arcade editors, Taito owns several amusement centers in Japan. Not exactly amusement parks indeed, some are mostly giant themed arcades as far as i know, but considering that Square-Enix is famous for the very rich fantasy universes they create, and that they already tried to market their trademark universe into other medias, like in the Final Fantasy movie, it would not be that surprising to see the new Square-Enix-Taito entity develop the Square-Enix catalog in other markets that Taito already knows.
    Also, Square-Enix already teamed-up with Disney to create a video-game series using Disney licences, which as see as another clue that Square-Enix is willing to capitalize on well-known characters and universes.




    > > Tuesday, August 30th 2005 : weblog app ready!

    It's been a long time since i've updated my site. One of the reasons was that i was building a small PHP tool to handle all HTML updating. There are many tools out there that i could have used to enable instant weblog features in my site, but i did want something very specific. Mostly, i didn't want to use a database, and i also wanted to keep my HTML pages and not spend time adapting my pages to a templating tool needs.
    The first version of this small app is now ready, so hopefully i should be able to update my site more often. Using this application, i'll also gather all the updates from my different sections in my home page.
    There's still lots to do on the PHP application, though. As of today, the main application is able to create new entries and edit existing entries. I've also developped basis for an online links manager, aiming both at gathering my bookmarks all in a single, online space, and at generating links pages automatically.
    Then again, i'll have to improve HTML handling in the editing tool, add image management functions, work on an unified user interface...
    Anyway, should this entry publish alright on the different topics i'll send it to, then it would be a great first step!
    It will also be a good thing done before taking a week off on holiday! :)

    [Edit] Well, turned out that there was some fixing needed. Work is done, beta testing is done, so now i think i have something stable enough! I'll focus on updating AND continue improving this application when i'm back from holidays.


    Welcome to my videogames page!
    I own about 20 consoles from the 20th century; my only 21st system as of today being the *wonderful* GameBoy advance SP!
    Maybe i'll get a Playstation II and/or a GameCube some day; most likely will i buy the PlayStation Portable when it will be released; but until then, most of my gaming experience was build on 32 bit max systems!
    The only 128 bit system i own is the great Sega Dreamcast, for which i have very few games actually.


    >> You can view my entire collection (consoles and games) in this page.

    >> As the Nec PC-Engine system is one of my all-time favorite system, and one of my first consoles too; i own lots of games for it. I've listed all my NEC games in this page of it's own.

    >> This Videogame section is also a place where i wish my favorite games to be represented! A selection of those games, sorted by type, is available by clicking here.

    >> Then, here's a brand new part that i wish to keep alive for a long time : the reviews.