JorgSolutions

For my friends, I’ve found a small treasure trove of free games (some) are of very high-quality & well tested.

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_games

Most of the the games on this site are remakes of original games that you had to buy.  If you don’t mind an occasional obscure bug during game-play you’ll probly find something you can enjoy.  Another great thing about these games is that they were created under the concept of ‘Open Source’ where a group software writer created these games out of personal interest. 

FreeCiv has been my bane for the last several weeks, sucking up all my free time.   It took me ~600 turns to ‘win’ the space race.  Now I can resume a normal life.
My basic tricks for improving game play:

• Economy vs Happiness… Simply keep this balanced, and attempt to get to a Democracy government A.S.A.P.  The Democracy allows for the largest army when you have the JS Bach wonder & Cure for Cancer wonder.
• Building large cities is best by choosing the sequence of improvements:
  (This is a highlights list) granary, market place, aquaduct, supermarket, mass transit, super highways, recycling center.  Sprinkle in between these items manufacturing improvements.�
  Another big action is ‘Transform’ the terrain around your city to 75% Grasslands with infrastructure of Farms.  This will allow for the largest cities of size 27+.
• War machine: Use a barrage of airplanes to remove all the city’s defending units.  If there is a SAM present, use a spy to disable it first.  Protect the spy with an entourage mechanized infantry.

I’m also looking forward to a production release of Free Orion.  This is a remake of Master of Orion, that is in development.  I played the game in its alpha stages, a limited tech tree and the war-machine was non-existant,  however the look-n-feel is great.  The graphics were beautiful & the management of the planets was easy, allowing for more of a macro-mangement approach.  I hope they provide a better reports feature in future versions.

I’ve also got a small download section of my personal favorite games here, if you are interested.

Happy Gaming,
– JJ –

After seeing the Blog from Johnny Lee (specifically this video) and the recent demo from Jim Foley using the Wii controller in a Flash web page, I truely believe that Nintendo didn’t realize they are going to be selling more controllers without selling the console system.

The Wii remote provides 6 axies of input:
Motion: (X) forward/backward, (Y)side-to-side, (Z) up/down
Angles: Pitch, Yaw, Rotation

Compare this to a mouse:
(X)  forward/backward, and (Y)side-to-side.

The high end joysticks are able to provide 6 axies of input, but not with such simplicity:
Tilt = (X)forward/backwards, (Y)side-to-side, and no (Z) up/down.
Twist=angle of rotation,
Rudder=2nd rotation/velocity input
Top-Hat=Viewing direction (Forward,Backwards,Left,Right).

The Wiimote software is DirectX and Java inputs friendly, so I’m gonna try to join in on this fun with my own 3D demo, eventually.

Thanks to Nintendo for a new controller!

– JJ –

Additional Links:
http://www.biggestpixel.com – Real-time 3D in a Flash Player.
http://www2.tokai.or.jp/N_EDGE/md2/md2_test.swf – Real-time 3D in a Flash Player
http://www.wiiflash.org – Resource for Wii and Flash Player integration.

I got the joy of disecting a laptop this weekend.  A friend has been having issues with the audio not working out of the built-in speakers, unless a headphone was connected.  The normal usage of headphones is to disable the built-in speakers which caused this to be a curious project.

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First I’d like to say that Artificial Intelligence is dangerous.  I don’t think humanity will be able to control its own creations.  Humanity has a conscience (ability to distinguish between right/wrong), while our creations could not. 

With that said, here is my idea on how to create Pandora’s Box (from a Java Programmer’s point of view).

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My name is Jason, and I’m a computer geek.

I’m part of the first generation of kids to grow-up with a computer.  My father brought home a PC back when I was 9 years old, and I’ve never been the same.  My skills are mostly based off experience, even though I’ve got schooling and have read a few good books.

Now that I’m in my 30’s and have my own kids, which are starting to become a bit more self-reliant, I’m able to venture back into a few hobbies and start this blog.  My Hobbies include model car kits, an N-Scale Train set, writing a PC games and other miscellaneous programs. 

Currently I’m working on finishing a couple of side-projects:

• A Java program that uses trial-n-error to ‘evolve’ code, coupled with Memory (database) of previous actions, this may be my version of Artificial Intelligence.
• A Perl program that downloads all available Stock Market data for another process to analyze.
• My N-Scale train set.  I’ve recently found a few hours to spend on a train-set that has been ignored for the last 7 years.

Here’s a brief summary of my skills: (Full resume available upon request).

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