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My name is Ganymede. I seek the ultimate game. But for now, I'm here to tell the tale of Alefgard.

For those of you who do not recognize the name, I'm talking about Dragon Warrior for the NES.

Dragon Warrior was the first game that made me want to better myself in order to play it - quite literally when I first picked up the game I didn't know how to read yet. It was new, it was interesting, and the qualities of the game made me want to get into it as soon as possible. Of course, as soon as I could read, I tried to finish it.

Dragon Warrior was the first turn-based RPG ever made, predating Final Fantasy by at least a year. The scenario was written by the winner of a programming contest in Japan, Yuji Horii, the music composed by the renowned Koichi Sugiyama, and the artwork drawn by the artist behind the Dragonball series Akira Toriyama. These three have been the core team behind every Dragon Warrior / Quest game since (numerically, at least) and have focused on trying to make the most fun and interesting game they possibly could each time.

Alefgard was not a disappointment in this regard. By the standards of today the world was relatively small and featured few settlements. The story was rather simple as well - the king of Tantegel Castle's daughter had been kidnapped by the Dragonlord and the precious orb of light stolen from the keep. The orb had been a tool used by a legendary hero in ages past known as Erdrick to slay a creature of tremendous evil, and the hero of Alefgard's story was Erdrick's descendant.

Dragon Warrior starts in Tantegel Castle in the throne room with a conversation with the king. He grants you a key to get out of the throne room (strange), a torch and some gold to get started. Immediately after you leave the castle you'll see a second castle that you cannot reach: Charlock, home of the Dragonlord. Progressing across the map proves deadly very quickly as you need to spend a large amount of time grinding for levels just to find out that only gives you access to another place to grind. The towns provide shops full of equipment and supplies, though they often cost a rather large amount of gold to buy. The entire game is a combination between grinding for experience, grinding for money, grinding your way through a dungeon that you can't see your way around most of the time, and searching for the legendary relics you'll need to finally reach and conquer the Dragonlord.

Challenge - 18/20
Puzzles - Labyrinthine dungeons are the bulk of the exploration, and nothing is left to "guess and check" when it comes to storyline items; NPC's tell you what's what as long as you're willing to talk to people. 10/10
Difficulty curve - Tactics solely consist of "don't go here yet" and "heal now" yet the curve is steep. 8/10

Customization - 9/20
Character - You can buy new equipment, but it doesn't alter your appearance and you can only keep one weapon, one shield, and one type of armor at a time. 6/10
World - Choosing where to go and at what time is the only thing you can do. You are unable to change the world itself, just how you experience it. 3/10

Art - 24/30
Visuals - The map isn't exactly believably natural in some places, but it's definitely something to see. 8/10
Music - All the music fits perfectly with each situation, from the throne room to the final confrontation with the Dragonlord himself. For what they were capable of at that time, 9/10.
Scripting - The whole game is written using Olde English. You'll doubtlessly see the phrase "Thou art dead" many times before you finish. There are no apparent plot holes, and the characters mostly tell you where to go next, even if the story is rather bland. 7/10

Combat system - 14/20
Ease of use - Text speed isn't an issue because the game keeps a visible log of all events that take place. You have 4 easy-to-use actions: Fight, Spell, Item, and Flee. 10/10
Complexity - Battles are Random Number Generator (RNG) based yet limited to certain parameters, all 1-on-1 against your opponents. Mechanics are very simple and don't take into account weaknesses to certain elements or equipment attributes beyond attack and defense. 4/10

"Fun" factor - Once you get into the game it's tough to get out of it until you've beaten it, however it doesn't exactly have much replay value. 8/10

Overall rating - 73/100

As you can see Dragon Warrior is far from the ultimate game. Alefgard is not the perfect world to simply immerse yourself into. That is not to say that it isn't an experience worth having, far from it. If you haven't given this game a shot in the past, it might be a good idea to see what this progenitor of the modern JRPG was like.

My name is Ganymede, and this is where my quest for the ultimate game begins. ...

Sunday the 11th, we here at FoxPunk will be throwing a Bare Requirements Party where you wear Lingerie and bring a Bottle of Wine. If you wish to bring a snack for the party instead of a bottle of wine you are more than welcome to. Feel free to be as creative with your lingerie as you want, though if you show up with no lingerie you will be asked to strip down till you look like you are wearing just your underwear or you can hang out in the closet. Seriously.

What is Lingerie you may ask, well Wiki says this.



That means you can wear anything that is an undergarment.

The party will start at 9:00pm and end somewhere around 1:00am or when ever we stop. Activities such as Twister, Apples to Apples, and etc will be going on. Come one and all and enjoy. ...

DRM, or the long version, Digital Right Management is that little piece of software a company puts in your game or music so you are not sharing their product for free. This has been going on since around 1998 and it started out with humble beginnings. There was a time when I would have to own the manual of the game I was playing so I could flip to page 13 and write down the word four lines down and two in to play it. Then came serial keys which for the most part work and are still used by many companies but with more of a encoding and registering flavor to it. Now in the year 2011 we have the worst DRM known to man kind, we have the kind where you have to be connected to the internet to play games that require no internet connection to play. That means if you are not connected to WiFi or have some sort of 3g or 4g connection a majority of new games will not play!



Polls on the internet showed that most of the people who stole software had no intention in buying it in the first play and those who stole it cause they didn't have the money at the time to make the purchase bought it at a later date. Also by word of mouth good software someone stole got bought by someone not willing to spend the time or energy to steal it themselves. Almost like the idea of stealing and buying restored balance to the force.

What is the moral of the story. DRM costs too much money to use and it only stops honest people from playing games or listening to music the way they want. It only gives thieves a new challenge and will never stop someone who has no intention to buy a product anyways. Putting in the easiest registering system so you can track how many installs above five and leave your customers alone is the smartest idea you can to support their purchase of your creation.

Thank You, I am done for now. ...

First off, I would like to thank the community and the site admin/dev. My purpose on this site and blog is to try and provide a unbiased and informative review on android apps, hacks, mods, etc. The systems that I currently use that are based on the Google Android platform are as follows.
HTC Droid incredible running Cyanogenmod 7.1 RC 1, stock kernal, 998 MHz on Verizon network.
Motorola Xoom wifi with Honeycomb 3.2 stock, no mods.
Let me make this clear from the beginning since it is sure to come up at some point. Yes I am an android fan. Though despite this I do like apple products if not the company. They did kickstart the mobile digital media market with the IPod series of products, kudos. And while I do not like the methods used with the developers for their app market, it DOES, despite what you may think, provide much higher quality control.
OK. So now lets get off of that because it is sure to get ugly if continued.

Since this is the first blog post on here I shall outline certain things about the android platform for those who do not know specifics on how it works.

Android
For those of you that are not as tech savvy or just have not bothered to learn more indeoth details of the system, here are some basics about android.
Designed as an open source project to create a mobile operating system with high functionality and low requirements, the android platform uses a refined Linux kernal with a VM that specializes in java. This Linux core handles the basic functions, essentially think of a tree.


The kernal would be the roots that provide the food, in this case hardware ID, processor clock, battery, radio, etc. The trunk would be the Dalvik virtual machine(VM), which provides the interface between apps and the hardware, and other apps. The apps are primarily written in Java but can be found using C, and these apps can be considered the leaves and branches on the tree. The way the apps run and are programmed make each one a fully self contained environment until they require access to a specific functionality. At that point they go to the Dalvik VM saying "please sir, may I have some more?", and yes, they do have a little British boy's accent. The Dalvik VM then decides to either give the app its extra porridge, access to the kernal/hardware, or releases the pedobear upon it. That is unless the app has been given what's called Super user permissions, and hulks out and eats the porridge, the server, and all the other orphans.
I'll touch on super user stuff in a bit, as its mainly associated with modded or hacked devices.
So essentially what happens is you start an app, it wants to contact 'FoxPunk.com' through the wifi or radio. It sends a request to the Dalvik VM which looks to see if the user has accepted the permission request on install, if yes, the VM lets the app use the wifi or radio connection to contact the website. If the user never granted the permission on install, then the app or the Dalvik VM might pop up a notifacation asking to grant permission, or it will deny the app completely. The thing about this is that the app itself can not change its permissions, only the Dalvik VM can. This method also isolates the apps running code from everything else that's running, allowing only minimal communication between apps. this helps to provide a more secure environment for the end user.

Now one thing I mentioned that people who have not looked into Linux or android past the basics will probably not recognize is the Super user. This is a special functionality built into Linux similar to the Admin privledge on Windows, and internet forums(I do not mention OSX as I do know know the term used by apple in this regard). Superuser permission grants an app the ability to access all funtionalities of the device regardless of the Dalvik system. you can think of it as most apps using a sports car, they go fast, but only on the road. Then super user comes along with optimus prime and does whatever the hell it wants. Needless to say, this can be a dangerous thing to toy with, and Android developers, including Google lock this down. though in the right hands it does give extended functionality over the devices.


So, this concludes my first blogging about the Android system, though surely not my last. Any questions, comments and critiques are welcome here, though if for some reason a satellite just 'happens' to come to a screeching halt in a blaze of fire right on top of your house... I've no idea why that might ever happen though. ...

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This game caught my eye right away. It is a puzzle game with explosives in the style of Snood or another game I cannot think of the name of right now. Normally that would be boring but the game does a few things to keep it fresh. First is you have more than one bomb type with special abilities you can use on conjunction with other bombs. Second is the game takes pride in how well it looks, good graphics and music can go a long way in simple games. You don't even have to destroy the entire object to win, you just have to cause enough damage to it which makes the idea of replying levels to finish off your destruction a catchy idea.


With a simple style and addicting complex rule system that isn't too hard to fail levels this game makes it a pleasure to sit down with and play around but complex enough to want to be competitive with a friend. An easy 4 out of 5, and with the price point of free for today you should pick it up right now. Otherwise it is $.99.



Amazing Breaker Download


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