ahbonk in tokyo

Yamano Nihongo Gakuen

2008-10-14T23:38:00.003+08:00

The title means Yamano Japanese Language School, and that's where I'm at!

Two Mondays ago, Dzaid and I sat for our placement test. We had to go through an interview session, then went through three horridly-kanji-ridden written test. Kanji are chinese characters used in the Japanese language, and something I'm VERY VERY bad in. D:

And wow, from lecturer to student. Unbelievable. I feel young again! \o/

The next day, we had an entrance ceremony, where we had visuals of Sakura petals falling down gracefully as Manabi proudly sings the school anthem. (Sorry for yet another hardcore anime reference)

After that, we got to know the class placement. This is where I imagined a cute girl nervously looking at the announcement, then glancing at me and shyly saying "Looks like we're in the same class. Yoroshiku ne." *blushes and scurries off*

Nope, didn't happen.

Dzaid and I were placed in a class lower than our expectations. We are now studying grammar and vocabulary that we learnt years ago. :S Luckily, the sensei assured that it was because of our Kanji, and if we built it up, we could jump 2 or 3 classes up in the next test.

But good thing it happened though, coz there are a bunch of cute girls in the class. :9 Though all of the others are either Koreans or Chinese (as in China's Chinese!), so kinda hard to fit in, no one speaks English! Dzaid and I had no choice but to converse in Japanese with them. Well it makes for great practice after all.

Every other day, I would go to a cafe or stay at home and practice my Kanji like mad. Really hoping to jump a few levels up, so gotta study hard!

Ganbarima~su!

10.10 Birthday in Gonpachi

2008-10-11T00:34:00.009+08:00

Wow, look at all the birthday greetings! I'm so surprised to come back from a full scheduled day and see my blog brimming with messages. Thanks everyone!

In the spur of the moment I might as well talk about how I spent this wonderful 28th birthday (yipes, that's close to 30 D:)

From Akihabara 秋葉原 (aka heaven), I took the Hibiya 日比谷 subway line to an artsy place called Roppongi 六本木. Met up with Daim and Dzaid to have our joint birthday dinner (Dzaid - Oct 15, just five days younger, same year, same hospital!). We chose Friday night out of convenience, since Daim won't have any work the next day.

Before that we saw a cool petrol station belonging to Eneos, the same workplace as Jay Chow in the Initial D movie.

Thought I'd work here for awhile. Can't wait to have some ahbengs coming up to challenge me in a downhill race.

Take note of the fuel pumps hanging on the ceiling to save space :D

Then it's time for birthday dinner!

Daim took us to a superb place called Gonpachi 権八. The interior is amazing; so amazing that it was used as the inspiration for the Kill Bill Vol 1 restaurant set! Serious! Remember the scene towards the end with that yummy mace-flinging schoolgirl? Yea that one.

And it didn't stop there... the food was DELICIOUS! Ate a whole lot of skewered beef and chicken, together with some lamb chop and steak. That was meat heaven right there! And it was on Daim too. Thanks so much for the treat, dude!

Oh yea, you can visit the restaurant's website here to have a clearer look at how cool the place is (sry lah, my phone camera works horribly in the dark): Gonpachi official site.

We left around 11:30pm. Rushed like mad to catch the last train of the day. I shall not do that again. Why? Coz Dzaid and I went into a place full of businessmen and women who reeked of sake:

Ah, authentic japanese experience...

ahbonk in tokyo!

2008-10-10T00:52:00.003+08:00

Hey guys! As you can see, I've updated my blog design. Not much of a layout change, just a change of colours and pictures.

The blog header that you see above is the front of my apartment. The extreme left is the door to my new home. About the soft look-and-feel, I wanted the blog to accommodate for the nice pictures that's gonna come later on ;)

I'm a little tired tonight, I'll update about my life in Tokyo tomorrow. Meanwhile, please comment on the design. I'm just a programmer who thinks he can design so I'm sure there's a lot to talk about, hahahah *weak laughter*

Ja, mata ashita!

Still no internet >_<

2008-10-05T18:08:00.003+08:00

I know the whole Tokyo is wifi-enabled, but looking for a free wifi spot in Japan is difficult. Had to google with my J-phone for the place. Only a few Starbucks here have free wifi! Grrr...

Finally I found one, in Ginza, a little nice cafe called Pronto. Ginza is quite the high-class place, but managed to find a place for a low-class guy like me :P The above is the view from outside the window I'm facing, a nice little quiet corner of otherwise busy Ginza.

Soooo... the internet in my apartment is still down X( Today the guy came, looked over some stuff, then mentioned that the modem was spoilt. Waited a whole week for that report! Tomorrow, some engineer would come over and look at the thing, hope I'll get the Internet some time this week!

Otherwise, am enjoying my life in Tokyo now, though I really miss the PEOPLE and YAMCHA SESSIONS of Malaysia (yea that's all). Trying my best to save money, though I did buy the complete series of ARIA manga, ehek. It's for learning Japanese, I'm telling you!

Ok lah that's all. Will update with MANY MORE photos with a REVAMPED layout once the Internet is up *sigh* Meanwhile enjoy a picture of me camwhoring in the cafe...

Konnichiwa from Tokyo!

2008-10-01T16:38:00.004+08:00

I am now in some super canggih Internet cafe in Shibuya. Argh so hard to type on this Japanese keyboard. It's challenging to even press the spacebar!

Anyway, I have safely arrived in tokyo and am now enjoying myself before the school term starts, trying my best not to splurge on anything >_< The apartment is VERY NICE, but I can't show you guys anything... bｅｃｏｚ it takes one whole week to install the Internet grrrrrrrrr... that's why we're in an Internet cafe now. Dzaid and I just went to the City Hall yesterday to register for our alien registration card. Anyone who lives in Japan for more than 90 days need to apply for that. With the card, you don't need to carry the passport around!

And, we just bought our J-phones! You can email me, and it will be sent straight as an SMS to my phone! Ain't that neat? My email is hazmer{at}softbank{dot}ne{dot}jp.

anyhow, until the Internet is fixed, I can't update my blog with pics nor revamp my blog, so you guys just have to wait.

Watch out for the first REAL Japan blog post next week!

Crap, my half an hour is almost up. Mata ne! And keep in touch!

Big Move Finale: I'm moving to Japan!

2008-09-10T06:37:00.006+08:00

This was taken back in 2006. Since my trip to Tokyo in 2004, I swore to myself that I will go to Japan every 2 years. I guess all good things come in threes. ^_^

Some of you already know it, and some of you don't. The previous three "Big Move Announcements" were a build up to this one, coz this is the biggest move I have ever made in my life. I'll be flying off to Tokyo this coming 28th September. Yup, you heard me right. I'll be in Malaysia for another 3 weeks before the great flight.

And no, it's not just a holiday trip. I'll be studying in a Japanese language institute, together with my cousin Dzaid, for one and a half years. And apart from my one-year experience in a hostel during Form One, this is the first time I'll be living independently *nervous*

Why learn Japanese, you ask? You see, I have two life-long dreams:

Create a game with a one million purchase/subscription mark. Need A LOT of experience for this to happen.
To obtain Japanese PR. (this is subject to change in case of culture shock, etc)

With this trip, I plan to kill both birds with one stone. The bigger picture of this journey is that I could join their independent game-making community, aka the doujin game culture.

Twice every year, they have a convention called Comiket, where tens of thousands of people visit booths opened by doujin enterpreneurs to sell their own manga, games, etc. Zun, creator of Touhou, also opens a booth once in a while to promote his product. Even Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, which started as a doujin game, had a lot of exposure through this convention.

So my short term goal is to join an independent game circle and open a booth to sell my games at a dirt cheap price. To some who are concerned, don't worry, I will still market myself as a Malaysian game developer ;) I just wanna have this booth-at-Comiket experience at least once.

But to do this, I need to perfect my Japanese.

I've been studying Japanese for two years, but I stopped coz I just didn't practice enough. You know, since we're in Malaysia. My JLPT Level 3 certificate means nothing if I can't even speak smoothly. And that's why I'm going to the source of it all: Tokyo!

As with anyone who plans to stay in Japan to work or to study, I had to obtain the Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) from the Japanese government 6 months earlier. I'm telling you, it ain't easy. They needed A WHOLE LOT of documents, so I drove to and fro to my former Japanese institute in KL Plaza. But it was all worth it, coz with the CoE it's easy to get my visa done, since a lot of background checks have been done already.

And of course, the flight ticket. Man, this is where I directly felt the impact of the fuel price hike. A one-way ticket to Japan cost me a freaking RM 2,600! _orz

Yup, that's the time of the flight. 28th September, 10:50 pm. I'm still in my numb state, I just couldn't believe that I'll be flying off so soon :S

This is where a whole lot of my money will go to. Apartments in Tokyo are small and expensive. Dzaid and I will be sharing an apartment, and it really looks similar to Sato's place in Welcome to the NHK: a staircase leading up to the room, with a ladder inside leading to the bed (though Sato used it to throw all his rubbish!)

It's a very decent apartment, and feedback from Malaysians who lived there before were great. It comes with a fridge, kitchen, microwave, an attached bathroom, and most importantly, an internet line! The price, though comparable with other Tokyo apartments, is really crazy by Malaysian standards: A freaking 53,000 yen/month, or RM 1696/month! And that's the price PER PERSON! Yaaaahooooo!

I will keep everyone posted about the trip. The blog will be revamped (about time!). To my dear close friends, let's yamcha more often! And my humble apologies to the classes that I'm teaching now, coz you'll be getting a new lecturer 3 weeks from now. You might get a more interesting one, so no worries! And to the students whom I taught before, don't be surprised if I come in with a camera yea ;)

Oh before I close this post, 6 months ago I had to xerox my passport to get my Certificate of Eligibility. The stewpid photostat machine in the shop had their toner set to high, so I asked them to do it again. Just to let you all know, this is the first result:

No government would want this freak in their country!

Big Move Announcement #3: We won the MSC pitch!

2008-09-05T02:36:00.014+08:00

Level up! My team has just won the MSC IP Creator's Challenge pitch. We have been awarded a grant of RM 50,000 to create a game within 6 months, along with two other winning teams. That's seriously the first time I received a freaking big cheque lol, size-wise and finance-wise.

More photos of the pitch are available at http://cmc.msc.com.my/event_detail.php?ID=242. Man I look so stupid in the first photo :S Thanks to Sora for the link!

The team celebrated in Chilis One Utama. You have no idea how hard it was to hide that cheque while walking towards the restaurant. Not something you wanna show to the crowd you know. Though after dinner, Nyin waved the cheque all over the place :S

(L - R)

My close sisters, Leeyean (Interface Designer) and Leenyin (Art Director). Nyin was the interface designer for Ballistic Wars (except the crappy main menu, done by yours truly :P). Yean is the artist for the upcoming Puzzerella Pizza game, which is coming out... uhh, soon *sweat*

Beside them is one cool guy.

Daim (Character Designer) couldn't make it for obvious reasons, so we connected to his hologram projection unit in Tokyo. He created those ball-ish characters in Ballistic Wars.

The one showing the thumbs up in style is Aidi (3D Modeler and Animator). He has the word "future" written all over. He also created the enemy ships in The Last Canopy.

And Adrian (Lead Programmer) is new to the team, so everyone say hi! He's my good friend whom I've known since college days. And he just continued WoW! Hooray!

Let's talk a little about the game. No Straight Roads is an arcade shooter that was inspired by arcade titles such as Rail Chase and House of the Dead. Basically we will spoon-feed the action for you. We'll change the camera angle and add rich visual narrative to the playing experience.

All you do is just move the mouse to shoot and drive. You only do one of the two at any given time. No matter how intense the action or point-of-view is, you just need to use your mouse to shoot and drive. That's what makes the game casual enough for everyone to play.

The game is also inspired by Gurren Lagann and Speed Racer. In other words, it's gonna be an AWESOME experience. The car is gonna skid on the walls, its movements are clumsy and we will have crazy boss battles that needs your wit to defeat them.

No Straight Roads will be in 3D, with the characters being 2D (billboard images in 3D space). It will be downloadable on the PC. I have a partnership link with a New York-based publisher at the moment, so I will use that to propose this game as a console downloadable as well, on PSN, XBLA or WiiWare.

The screenshot above is done by Leenyin. She did a great job compiling everyone's work to create such a vibrant and exciting scene.

The story is set in a future post-apocalyptic world where an evil company reigns to take advantage of the situation. They are called Straight Roads Inc. Hence the game name.

Ayola (the girl on the right) is part of the rebel force (hmmmm this is starting to sound familiar...) that opposes the company. One day, she fought them on her bike, but lost completely. Trying to run away, she hailed a taxi that belonged to Marty (the guy on the left). Reluctantly, he let her in, and drove the taxi out of the city. The game starts here!

Of course, Daim did the character designs, which are excellent as usual :)

And this is the futuristic taxi that Aidi built. His sense of how the future looks like never fails to amaze me, and he has put a lot of thoughts to come up with such a sleek-looking car. Kudos!

I still haven't figured a name for the car yet. Anyone have any ideas?

And this is the logo of No Straight Roads, done again by expert visualizer Nyin.

Nyin has also done an amazing job with the pitch document, taking everyone's drawings and my writing, then montaging them nicely into a great page layout. This is a one-page preview of the pitch document, and no doubt it has helped a lot to win the hearts of the judges.

So yea that's the game. I couldn't have done it without this team chock full of talent and dedication. Ah to be surrounded by geniuses, I'm so blessed. :) Thank you so much, team! We have finally done it, though the true work starts now! Korekara mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu. (I shall depend on you guys even from now.)

Oh speaking of which, Daim with a beanie reminds me of a game character...

Big Move Announcement #2: Aria is now #4!

2008-09-03T18:09:00.006+08:00

In the future, Mars is terraformed and modeled after the most beautiful city on Earth, Venice. Welcome to the world of Neo-Venezia.

There's only one word needed to describe this anime: beautiful. The plot, the characters, the architecture, the world, they're all beautiful. Its sheer beauty made it easy for me to place Aria in my #4 spot for best anime of all time!

We follow the life of a newcomer of Neo-Venezia, Akari, who aims to be a full-fledged gondolier. She starts out as an apprentice in Aria Company, one of the three biggest tour gondola companies. She trains vigurously with her two best friends, Aika and Alice (you guessed it, everyone's name starts with A in this show).

Yup, that's all the show's about. No, it's not a sports anime that talks about elite gondola rowing techniques, it's just a laid-back feel-good show. Let me remind you that I'm a sheer sucker for Slice of Life shows. If you like fast-paced anime, avoid this altogether.

If you hadn't already noticed, the world is beautiful. Amano Kozue has successfully captured the essence of beautiful Venice, and added together science fiction elements that do not cheapen, yet enrich the architecture of Neo-Venezia. The detail of the architecture reflected on the huge body of water just takes your breath away.

For example, if you see the first picture, you can see a hanging citadel with flying ships hovering above the city. The citadel acts as a weather control center to regulate the seasons. It's like those majestic cities you see in recent Final Fantasy titles, but more down-to-earth.

But what's more important than just a visually beautiful city is how we see things as beautiful through Akari's eyes. Every episode, she meets new people, explores new streets, encounters new things. Being a girl from busy and polluted Man-Home (the new name for Earth), she is delighted by every of these encounters to great detail.

Aria is just a simple example of how to appreciate the little things in life. The show is uplifting and is full of warm fuzziness. Hey, anyone could use an extra helping of relaxation and happiness. It's a great show to watch after a tiring day at work.

Amano Kozue has transformed the laid-back life in Venice into a beautiful tale of simple pleasures. You can clearly see that the story takes inspiration from slice-of-life short stories in Europe, like Life is Beautiful and Emily.

And just like those European short stories, the plot could go into the surreal. She went through this old tunnel once, and it brought her back in time to when the planet Aqua was just about to be filled with water.

Cats are also a very big influence to the anime's plot. They are considered grand creatures in the show, and following them to a hidden street could bring you to another world.

These paranormal details do not degrade the anime at all; instead they add more to that surreal European feel. Comes to show that Neo-Venezia is full of mysteries yet to be explored. I like.

Another beautiful thing about Aria is the sheer concept of its moral narrative. On the surface, it might be a simple story of girls in white rowing gondolas, but the life lessons learned in every episode are deep. It's hard to explain, you gotta watch it to understand what I'm saying.

The characters are cute too! And all of them are likable, just like Azumanga. Mix all this with comedy scenes and great chemistry between the characters, and you get the most beautiful anime that I have ever seen. Beautiful in all sense of the word.

A very big thank you to Benjamin for recommending this anime. For this, you get an A for your subject (haha just kidding :P).

To fuel my obsession for ranking every aspect of my life, below is my updated anime chart:

Sorry Chobits. At least you're still number six!

Big Move Announcement #1: Feenaa is now Level 70!

2008-09-03T14:24:00.008+08:00

My wonderful ~~curvy~~ female draenei frost mage named Feenaa has just reached Level 70 last Sunday! She has frost-nova-ed and blizzard-ed her way through many regions, and died just as many times. I guess intelligent people can't wear heavy armour in RPGs. Oh well.

In my total 2 years of playing World of Warcraft (dropped, picked it up, dropped again...), this is the first time I reached the level cap TT_TT I'm so happy! /dance /cheer

If you still think that a guy can't use a female avatar, get over it. Being more of a J-RPG fan, I'm just not used to oversized/muscular male leads!

To commemorate such an EXTREMELY rare and auspicious event, let's look at some memoirs from Feenaa's past! (also known as Program Files/World of Warcraft/Screenshots).

Come on, who hasn't climbed to the highest point of the SW fountain and summoned a mount?

I just love the graphical glitches in WoW!

This is my wonderful guild called MAD. Adrian said it stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. Uh-huh. (And seriously Adrian, where are you?!) Oh, if there are 5 or more people logged in at the same time, you can buy a lottery ticket.

Come to think of it, everyone in the above picture are my cousins XD hahahahha so lame...

(L - R)
Racquel = Human Rogue = Dzaid
Hizriad = Human Paladin = Daim
Devilette = Human Warlock = Dina
Gallinago = Dwarf Hunter = Aidi

As you can see, we have no warriors and priests. A very... unique team. :)

The MAD guild going for a costume party. Speaking of costumes...

...Feenaa in her red outfits!

My guild members can be quite lame. They either make stupid jokes...

...or make weird requests.

And we love to abuse the raid warning message :P

Yes yes I'm dead, I know...

The great Knight-Lieutenant Diven joined us in one of our dungeon runs! He's none other than Randolph, the great guild leader of Sanctioned Insanity, also friend and APIIT colleague as well.

Luckily he didn't switch on his Macros, else he could see how n00bish I played :D

"Eh Hazmer, your DPS quite low leh..."

The guild went back in time and fixed a glitch in the space-time continuum! We helped younger Thrall to escape and kicked some ass along the way.

My favourite pic :) Took this when Feenaa got her epic mount for the first time.

Alright then, Lich King, here I come!

The Last Canopy on YouTube!

2008-08-17T03:23:00.005+08:00

You know what makes a game designer really happy? It's when you have fans posting up video walkthroughs of your game on YouTube!

I dunno who this Pseani is, but damn s/he's good! Even though I know the game in and out, s/he's so much better than me! On the hardest mode (You're nuts mode), Pseani could make it through the first 3 levels with 14 lives left :O The fairy was hit only once! Nuts!

I don't think I ever won You're Nuts mode before, kakakaka. Yup, I can't beat my own game :P

Because of the 10 minute limit, Pseani posted 4 videos for the Hard mode walkthrough, and another 4 for You're Nuts. Here's the video of the last level in the hardest mode:

Walkthrough of Final Stage (You're Nuts mode)

Whoever you are, Pseani, thanks for posting the awesome vid. You got some mad skillz there!

If you don't even have a fraction of Pseani's skill, how about hacking it instead? I dunno what software is used, but your life could be reset to 999! Look at the vid below.

Hacking The Last Canopy

And on a related note, The Last Canopy is chosen as the Friday game of the Buried Treasure week on Kongregate. Get over there and earn some badges while you're at it! The comments there are interesting to read too, coz it's obvious that they either love it or hate it. It's hard to strike a balance when the casual community is massive. Go to http://www.kongregate.com/games/ahbonk/the-last-canopy.

Busy busy busy

2008-07-27T11:38:00.004+08:00

Yikes, been awhile since I've been here!

My baby vaio (figuratively; I didn't give birth to it!) died on me a week ago. Things just had to happen when you have a deadline to meet. Thank god it's ok now, and it's even faster than before coz I installed Windows XP. Wahaha finally! Vista suxxxxxx...

I'm so terribly busy with all the game-making, which is a good thing. Tiring, but good. Here are the latest game projects I'm working on:

We have contacts in New York who's interested in publishing the new Ballistic Wars. It's to be more centric on strategy rather than puzzle, so it has resource collecting and the ability to build new units!

This is Puzzerella Pizza (Puzzle + Mozzarella! Get it? Get it?!), a Match-3 game featuring yummy pizza toppings! Nyin and Yean have finished the designs already, but I haven't polished up the programming yet (Sorry muis!). Its production will be back on track after the MSC IP Creator's Challenge.

Working with Chen Li aka Ms. Mangkuk on this one. A collaborative game with Jayisgames.com called Casually Killed. A point-and-click game where you have to investigate a mansion to solve a murder case. Comes with quirky characters and many tributes to casual games out there!

This ain't your typical Sunday Drive! No Straight Roads is the latest arcade shooter we're working on, and due this coming Thursday for the MSC IP Creator's Challenge. Together with Nyin, Yean, Aidi, Daim and Adrian, you know it's gonna be a blast! Am gonna lose sleep these few days for this game!

And finally, a game that I can't reveal much. Basically it's a casual MMOG that features mechanics for cooperation and lesser time commitments. This is the main reason why the New York publisher contacted me. Will be working on its pitch document the whole of next month.

And there you have it! Now you know why I'm busy right? Juggling all this with my lecturing job... wooohooooo. So I won't be blogging till earliest this weekend, if I can survive, that is.

The hidden Euro 2008 match

2008-07-02T11:43:00.002+08:00

Did you know that in football, there's a super-finals match after the finals? Bet you didn't. After Spain won, they had to take on the final contenders in a lava field planted with mines.

It was an epic match, and it ended brutally. When the final whistle blew on Tuesday night in Mount Stromboli, it did not just confirm the mysterious force as winners of Euro 2008, it was also a signal to down the Spanish team with lava spew.

They are the winners yet again...

...the MMTOA team! (Eat that UEFA! Our abbreviation is longer!)

Their secret lies in their superb exit strategy: be genuinely injured OFTEN, to send the good Spanish players off. Damn they're good.

(taken at Platinum Futsal Sunway :P)

Whose Line is it Anyway?

2008-07-01T01:56:00.008+08:00

For those in the dark, Whose Line is it Anyway involves 4 comedians who have to make stupid jokes on the spot, given a certain surprise situation or dialogue. Sometimes they would bring in a guest, like the video below. But Colin, Ryan and Wayne will always be the comedy classics.

I used to follow Whose Line is it Anyway on Star World some time back, but I think I missed this episode. I just finished laughing like a madman at 2 o'clock in the morning. Thanks to Chen for sending me this one.

Poor Wayne.

Haven't had a super crazy laugh-till-die in weeks! Everyone cannot tahan and bursted into laughter, even after the stunt!

Damn I miss this show. Too bad it stopped 2 years ago. I think it deserves a worldwide petition campaign! Who wants to sign up? :)

Blizzard answered my second prayer

2008-06-29T00:59:00.010+08:00

Has any game company made you reach orgasm twice in such a short time? Not counting the games that literally do that. *ahem*

Today is the day many macho guys (including me... hey I'm macho too) giggle like little girls, as Blizzard officially announces freaking Diablo III. HELL YEAH!

Among the features announced during the 2008 Worldwide Invitational today:

Isometric gameplay in yummy 3D goodness :9
Physics engine powered by Havok; environment now destructible and can be used against your foes!
Dungeon layout is random as always, but now with random scripted events... whoa.
Greater level of character specialization, so everyone can be different
Coop gameplay over Battle.net to be massive and epic
Five character classes, announced so far are the barbarian and a new one: witch doctor!
Now you don't have to stare at a muscled guy throughout the entire game, coz you can choose the gender for every class!

Just like Starcraft II, Blizzard launches a website that matches the game in its epic-winness: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3.

Go ahead, watch the below gameplay footage in all its glory. You know you want to. Just don't forget to change your pants after that.

Damn, how I missed those red and blue orbs.

Jayis + The Last Canopy on G4TV!

2008-06-27T00:21:00.007+08:00

Big congrats to Jayisgames.com for being featured in G4TV's Attack of the Show. In case you didn't know, G4TV is a TV cable channel in the US dedicated to video game lifestyle.

Great effort has been put in by Jay and team to feature a whole array of casual games reviews and to nourish the casual game community. All that hard work has been paid off.

As Jay likes to put it, Wooty tooty! \o/

And to ride in on their glamour, short footages of The Last Canopy were shown before they talked about the site. Yay! It's a bit here and there, but I'm still very happy =) Here's the video:

Congrats to Jay and team, and The Last Canopy team as well!

Lucky Star dance by Haruhi Cast (Complete!)

2008-06-18T23:13:00.010+08:00

I wanted to post pictures of my Father's Day cooking here, but my dad hasn't emailed me the pictures yet, so... let's go for the next best thing!

About 6 months ago, there was a half-way preview of the Haruhi cast doing the Lucky Star dance. It was unlike the other parodies which just change the characters and all that. This fan-made video is in 3D, plus there's professional-looking cinematic compositions involved.

This month, all Kyoani fans rejoice! The movie is finally complete! Courtesy of Nico Nico Douga, of course (where else?).

Waaaaahhh, pssshhhhhtt psssshhhttt psssshhhhhtttt (up to you to interpret my reaction).

p/s - This is the 100th post for simply ahbonk.net (not counting my previous 2 blogs). Big tenkyu shoutout to all you readers, hope I can keep 'em posts coming!

Also in GameAxis Magazine!

2008-06-11T23:37:00.005+08:00

Woohoo, featured twice in a month!

The team has been featured in The Star, and now we're also in GameAxis magazine June edition. Super thanks to sub-editor Lim Kuan Keat for writing an awesome three-page spread!

You know what the title reminds me of? Nacho Libre. "Take it eeeeaaaaaasssssyyyyy", with the signature Jack Black teeth-grit lips.

I just realized that I have such a fake smile in the photos =_= I'm so not photogenic. The whole team looks good though. It even has Dzaid's progressive fairy drawings, Daim's character designs and Aidi's ship designs as part of the layout. Speaking of which, Daim, wish you were in these photos too :(

And the last page even features the designs for the upcoming two games: a detective point-and-click game, designed by Chen Li (*ahem* where are my room drawings?! keke...); and a match-3 puzzle game, designed by my two great sisters Nyin and Yean.

I blurred out the text to encourage you to buy the mag, of course! It's only 7 bucks, and it's packed with glossy colorful goodness, rich with features, game reviews and coverage of the local scene. Go get it!

Featured in The Star!

2008-06-10T22:19:00.004+08:00

Away with the bad news, and on to some good news!

My team and I were featured in The Star In-Tech section today! My god, was I so shocked to see my big, hideous face across the whole section cover.

Sorry ah, my scanner quite small!

Thanks to Madhavan for the awesome article, very well-written! And also thanks to my close buddies Nyin, Yean, Aidi and Dzaid for making it to the photography session. Wish you were in there too, Daim :(

Full story available online @ The Star Online (click here).

You can pre-arrange an autograph session with the team, but only if our busy schedule allows ;) Book early!

Killing Spree in Akihabara

2008-06-08T21:00:00.005+08:00

Usually I don't like to write about bad news, but this is about my favourite district on Earth, so I'll make an exception.

The bastard in the suit above is Tomohiro Kato. Noon today, he drove a truck into the middle of a crowd in Akihabara, Tokyo. He then walked out and randomly stabbed those people with a knife. 7 people have died and at least 11 others have been injured.

His motive? "I'm tired of life. I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter whom I'd kill".

In case you didn't know, Akihabara (nicknamed Akiba to attract locals and tourists) is the "electric town" of Tokyo, where people can buy electronic products and anime-related goods. As you can already guess, the place is super-crowded on a Sunday.

The story doesn't end there though:

A week and a half ago, someone posted a thread in 2channel (a popular japanese forum) under the title "[News] In Akihabara, an Xbot ninja will be involved in a tragic slashing spree" with the text "Soon after 5th June, this is guaranteed to happen, so I thought I'd post ahead of time". Whether the killer is the poster himself is yet to be determined.

A similar stabbing spree happened 2 months ago in another district, killing 1 person. Coincidence or not, the stabbing was done by a Dead or Alive runner up champion. Because of the "Xbot ninja" thread, the killing today was attributed by some to the Ninja Gaiden 2 launch, also by the same company.

Today is also the seven-year anniversary of the Ikeda elementary school killings in Osaka, where 8 children were killed.

Looks like the reputation for being one of the safest country in the world is being tarnished. I truly hate the killing of innocent people. May the victims rest in peace and my sincere condolences to the families and friends involved.

Here's CNN's early coverage of the incident:

Be careful, Daim. Take care of yourself.

Hey, it's anime yo!

2008-06-05T03:41:00.010+08:00

What do you get when a bunch of anime fans, who happens to know how to rap, have a lot of free time in their hands? They take the anime songs and add in their own groove!

Long ago, I was totally addicted to YouTube. Maybe I still am, but even less so than before. It all started with those Hare Hare vids. Whichever anisong I like, I'd try to search for its music video. Then came the crazy Lucky Star fan creations. Oh, and the endless list of Hatsune Miku and Umauma vids.

And let's not forget the japanese variety show segments and 80/90s TV show intros.

During the Hare Hare fever, I stumbled upon the rap version, among the many other remixes I downloaded. What sets that video apart is that the rappers would take the karaoke version of the song, and create their own rhythm and lyrics, and occasionally sing back the original tune.

These guys are not professionals, and they're doing it for, well, fun! They know how to make a song sound different and totally upbeat. Talented buggers.

Seriously, they have too much time on their hands. But then again, they're Japanese. We all know that the Japanese are passionate and crazy people.

It seems that this rapper group has made a name for themselves in the Nico Nico community. They call themselves Rap-Bit.

You can visit their blog here. Below are their other creations:

Naraku no Hana Rap. Unbelievable, they managed to make Higurashi upbeat! Below is the opening to the semi-boring 2nd season, click here to view the original OP.

Caramell Dansen Rap. Even the Umauma dance can't escape the clutches of rap! This is the famous Caramell Dansen song from Sweden, and the dance has been a super-popular meme in Japan lately.

Levan Polkka Miku+Rap. For those who lived in a cave for the past year, Hastune Miku is a cute girl associated with a software that you can actually compose lyrics and rhythm to create a song with convincing synthesized vocals.

Some dude went and composed Miku's voice over Levan Polkka, a traditional Finnish song. The result is really cute, and now it has been super-charged further with rap!

Hitoshite Jiku ga Bureteiru Rap. Alright, my 3rd fave OP of 2007 (remember the ahbonk.net anime awards?). This is the OP to the superb show Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and now it has been rapped! This is their latest creation, and it sounds great. I'm a happy man. Click here to view the original.

Now if I had more time, I wonder what I'll do...

Bali Trip!

2008-05-27T21:33:00.002+08:00

Yay, just finished all my replacement classes (sorry, students!), so it's time to talk about my Bali trip with Mama, Auntie Sam and my cousin Aidi! A little warning: this post has almost 60 pictures total! Sorry to take your bandwidth away, so I'll try to make the trip sound as entertaining as possible!

As usual, the captions are below the pictures. Here we go!

Day One

As I mentioned in my previous post, it's been a while since I took a trip. So I woke up first thing in the morning and was on my toes to start the trip.

I was really too excited!

Just like Singapore, we had to fill up some embarkation white card. Whoa, what's this? Purpose of visit: Official mission? Damn...

We knew we had to tick that one. (Thank god for the empty terminal counter!)

Aidi took this beautiful view when we were nearing Bali. Dunno why, but every time near landing time, my right ear would go deaf on me and I would writhe in pain. What the heck is wrong with me?! Someone, please tell!

Anyhow, when we reached Bali, we were... uhm... impressed. Impressed that Bali looked like Malaysia in the early 80s. Not exactly what was pictured in Bali travel guides.

What better way to greet us than to have Bali pictured in a Samsung TV advert!

The MAS travel package included a hotel stay and some breakfast. So a tour guide escorted us to our hotel.

The reception area was full of culture and looked really cozy. The hotel was way better than I expected. Cheers to the hotel in which I forgot the name! :P

We had only two full days in Bali, so we needed a tour package. Hence, the tour fee negotiation battle began!

The hotel room was really superb. This was where I spent my lovely honeymoon getaway... with Aidi =_=;; Thank god the beds were separate!

And wow, just look at the channel listings! They even have french, german, spanish and italian channels! But the best channel was channel 29, FashionTV. They had this segment called Midnight Hot where they would feature... uh, never mind...

The only downside to the room was the frosted toilet window. In the picture you can see Aidi pushing out his bowels with passion.

We arrived at night unfortunately, but we had time to do one simple thing... go to the spa! So they massaged me, scrubbed me (eh hehehe he heheeheh geli la), showered me...

...and put me in some flower bath. This was the aftermath. I was there, covered with flowers, almost-naked... mmm mmm imagine that...

Ok ok don't go! Read on!

Day Two

As usual, I woke up with full enthusiasm.

Had some aunthetic Balinese breakfast: sunny side up eggs, potatoes and bread!

After breakfast, we started our first full day in Bali.

Randolph and Yu San spent their honeymoon in Bali recently. Randolph told me that at every roundabout there's a beautiful statue standing in the middle. This was one of 'em. Truly majestic.

Felt like climbing the statue and pay homage to Shadow of the Colossus (remember Singapore's merlion pic?), but some Hindu monks might kill me on the spot.

We arrived in some place near the hotel to watch the Barong dance, a classic example of the fight between good and evil. The dance was ok, not as enjoyable as the kecak dance we saw later that day.

It was raining heavily, which lent some sort of nice atmosphere to the dance. The musicians sat in a separate hut next to the stage.

Then when the dance finished, the rain stopped! Black magic or masterful stage tricks?

Nooo Mama, stop playing!!!

Loved this lion. He would sometimes *kiap* *kiap* his mouth suddenly, with some knocking wood sound added to it. Damn cute.

After the dance, we went to this Batik museum in Ubud. Quite funny considering that we have a whole lot of Batik in Malaysia, but oh well, it's all part of the tour.

These two would make a lovely addition to my collection of anime figures!

They had ladies handcrafting batik outside the museum, and this foreign lady had the artist to draw straight on the white shirt!

We were about to leave, when suddenly a British chap wanted to show his art collection...

Will you look at that white moustache? Such a distinguished gentleman.

Also in Ubud was a shop selling silver, so we dropped by to see how the accessories were created. This guy was busy creating some ring/necklace.

And this poor dude had to work to cover his trip's expenses.

We left for Kintamani, a good 2 hours drive away. Had a really good sleep in the car. Suddenly, the tour guide told me that we reached a really good souvenir shop. So I ran in, eager to see what was in store...

....oooo-kaaaayy....

Aidi, always a good hunter.

Bali seems to like sex-related crafts a lot. Saw a bunch of sex-position figures, but this one had a a person with a stick going into... uh, another person with a stick =_=

Adrian, this one's for you! ;)

Thanks to the guy in the middle who gave us numerous discounts, we became happy shoppers.

And we have arrived in Kintamani, a semi-active volcano! Semi-active because there are still some nice hot springs up that mountain. The tour guide mentioned that you could wake up at 3 in the morning to climb up that hill and see the sunrise. Do not want.

We took a long downhill drive and visited a small temple. Forgot the name :P

The place really looked like some abandoned ruins in Stranglethorn Vale (sorry, non-WoW players!). So we wanted to explore further...

...but the tribal orc and troll scared us away.

The tour van driver drove past traffic like a leopard coz we were afraid we couldn't see the sunset. When we thought we made it in time...

The stupid sky blocked the sun! Rats!

Anyway, welcome to Uluwatu, a must-visit for the Bali traveler. It got quite dark, so we didn't have much time to explore around. We just went straight to the Kecak dance.

Oh great, just what I needed. A bunch of half-naked men.

This dance is quite cool. First, there's no music. Those men actually chanted like nuts, shouting CAK-KE-CAK-KE-CAK-KE-CAK over and over again, following the rhythm and mood of the dance. No prize given to whoever can guess why it's called the Kecak dance.

It was truly entertaining, and I dare to say that it's the best experience I had in Bali. Was even inspired to use their chanting for my next platform game!

One of the characters that I really liked was the white monkey. At first, he didn't do much, just disturbed the chanters here and there, and left the stage.

I was sitting on the second last row. Suddenly, a lady behind me shouted in surprise.

I looked behind, and saw the very same monkey just behind me! The freaking monkey sneaked up on us! Whoo, what an experience! Too panicky to take a good picture, so had to make do with this one.

The monkey then walked down the seats, even saying in English "Excuse me, going through" xD He then sat beside some gwailo, and happily chatted with him until it was time for him to enter the stage! That monkey's one charming dude.

Then the evil forces trapped the monkey with some fire wall. He got into a trance and extinguished the fire with his own bare feet!

Had to take picture with the hero. Damn his flees though.

Day Three

And the second (and last) full day in Bali arrived. Usually when people think of Bali, they think of the temples....

...and they think of the beaches! This is Nusa Dua, a beach for all youngsters who are into all those extreme water sports, like jetskiing, paragliding, etc.

My mom and auntie are not into those kind of things, so we took a simple boat ride. That's what happens when you travel with two old ladies xD kidding! kidding!

Our completely tak-jadi take of One Piece. Aidi just couldn't stretch his arms long enough! He should've shown that big wide Luffy smile.

The boat took us to a little place called Turtle Island, a little gimmicky touristy place to touch many types of animals that have nothing to do with each other!

C'mon Michealangelo, go to the camera. Haiyoh, faster la! Party dude konon.

I've got you now, Batman!

Aidi and I having some quality time together.

Name that PS2 game!

After the beach trip, we went down for some authentic Balinese lunch (for real this time!). That thing in the middle is the standing fish.

Standing fish huh? Kinda reminds me of that news guy in Spongebob.

After lunch, we went to yet another temple. Again, I forgot its name... ehek.

The tour guide told us that 2000 years ago the tribal men warded off enemies from this temple by building a few ion cannons (ok ok there were spotlights for some official ceremony).

The garden inside the temple was beautiful. It's a distant reminder of the zen gardens in Kyoto.

The Balinese greet visitors with their hands close together like this.

After that simple temple visit, we went to a more postcard-worthy temple. This is Tanah Lot. During high tides, you can see the beach submerged by sea water, so the temple would like it's floating on an island.

As usual, an obligatory picture of me and my mom. Man, I'm such a good son!

What better way to ruin the scenery than covering it with some silly dance moves.

Oh wait, there're some *under-utilized* sea shots. I guess it's time for...

Kung-fu Fighting... haiyah!

I delivered a well-timed (pathetically low) kick, while Aidi did... whatever that move was. He was most formidable.

But who won this epic struggle for supremacy? (= loser had to pay for dinner)

Rest in peace, Aidi. Rest in peace.

ANYWAY... my mom and auntie insisted on having Padang cuisine for dinner, so we ended up in this place. Just look at the number of dishes!

Four extremely full Malaysians in the Natrabu Minang restaurant.

Last Day

The guy on the left is our super-speedy driver. Beside him is our tour guide for the last 2 days. This was the last shot at the Denpasar airport.

And that ends our Bali trip! Soon after that, I had to rush to teach Advanced Digital Media class, trying to overcome the holiday drunkenness at the same time. :P

Now, back to work... bummer...

Romantic Getaway.... with... uh.....

2008-05-19T06:08:00.006+08:00

Guess where I'll be for the next 4 days? Here's a clue:

That's right... In boooootiful B-A-L-I!

Yes, I'm going for a romantic honeymoon getaway... with my mom, my aunt and my cousin, Aidi. :P I'll be sure to avoid any sunsets and candlelight dinner restaurants!

Been working like mad these past few months, with the lecturing, new subject development, The Last Canopy and all. So this trip is just what I need to rest my brain. I won't be bringing my laptop, and I sure ain't gonna check the Net there... I think.

This was planned a few months ago, but I made a mistake in the new TOA semester's starting date, so the holiday is a little ill-timed :P So sorry my dear students, but you can expect a fresh new lecturer with rejuvenated energy and enthusiasm for the upcoming weeks ;)

And yes, expect pictures... not scenic pictures, of course. This is ahbonk.net right? :D Expect stupid pictures, just like the Singapore trip! (click here to see the post).

Alright then, off to Bali I go. Will be back this Thursday. See ya!

Run Everyone, It's Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T22:37:00.004+08:00

Uh-oh it's that day of the year again.

Just like any other good son (who wanna save money), I cooked dinner for my mom! Felt like cooking some Japanese food. The greatest challenge was that my mom couldn't eat raw fish, so I couldn't get away with just sushi and sashimi. Drat!

Had to go to Isetan KLCC to get one important thing: Dashi stock, a basic fish broth found in a whole lot of Japanese food. There, I also took the chance to buy some fresh Sanma, damn hard to find this fish in a typical supermarket.

Once I reached home, the cooking began! Being a guy, I couldn't multi-task, so I cooked the dishes one at a time :P It took a whole one and a half hours!

This was my mom's favourite dish! I'm sure you've eaten this in some Japanese restaurant before. It's salt-grilled Sanma fish. Referred to a recipe online, and found out that it's super easy to make! Just marinate the fish with salt, grill it, and makan!

Then I cooked some layered omelet. My sisters ate this before, but this time I added the Dashi stock to the whole mix, can't really taste the difference though (maybe I didn't add enough!).

And this was my favourite :D I'm particularly proud of this one, coz the beef was tender and the potatoes were really soft. Also added dashi stock to this one, and this time there's a difference, a delicious one at that! :9

And how did the food fare...?

*drumroll*

Yay my 2nd seal of approval! She really loved the fish, too bad the fish are a bit on the expensive side. Overall, she's one happy mother!

But mother's day or not, my mom cleaned the mess :P I cannot lah, headache when I see the aftermath. X( Sorry Mama!

Happy mother's day to mothers all around the world! Man, father's day is coming. What should I cook next...

Osu!

2008-05-08T18:15:00.004+08:00

Who here likes the DS music game Ouendan and EBA? *ME!* *ME!* Well, your prayers have been answered, with Osu!, the downloadable version of the game! And yup, you guessed it, you can download from a huge list of songs (called beatmaps) created by the Osu! community!

This is not just a simple music game emulator, mind you. Unlike Mixwaver and Drummania DTX, this game has a slick interface and, if you register with their forums, you'll be able to compete online, post to a global scoreboard and even see online replays of other experts!

So whatcha waiting for? Click here to go to the Osu! website!

OSU! TATAKAE! OUENDAN!

Of videogames and interviews

2008-05-07T19:16:00.004+08:00

First off, big congrats to (if )interactive for winning the Webby People's Voice awards! The win goes to Discovery Channel's I, Videogame project, an edutainment website that talks about videogames for the past 4 decades. Just for your info, the Webby Awards is a leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet (ripped off from the website :D).

I'm proud to say that I was part of the (if )interactive team working on that project! Man, so nostalgic, the times when I was in (if ).

*sob* Anyway, here are the links to the announcement and the actual site:
Webby: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=12
I, Videogame: http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/ivideogame/

On an unrelated note, I was interviewed by Tim W of the Indiegames blog. Tim had Jay of Jayisgames to publish it on his site. Click here to read the interview.

Tim has a great story to tell as well. He was a programmer for 10 years or so, got tired of it and opened his own setup. The people at San Francisco noticed his great skill in journalism and had him to be the editor and writer of the Indiegames blog. And guess what? We met through the Internet and all, and he just lives near my house! Can't believe I'm living near an international blog superstar. XD

Anyway, thanks Tim! Next time, two Frappuccinos, my treat!