[BFG] Busy . . .

Been busy drawing and painting (see my main blog). Also watching a lot of anime again. Playing videogames (see work blog for that). Reading some. Sent out a few stories. Sent novel sample and synopsis to agent. Promise I'll write a proper post very soon.

[BFG] Latest PSP Writing

Something bizarre is happening with my internet access. At first I thought it was just Firefox conflicting, for some unknown reason, with WordPress (which my work blog uses) so that whenever I tried to publish two posts in a row, the new one would copy over the old one, even though they had different file names. But then Safari did the same thing. In fact, it not only deleted the first post when I published the second, when I tried signing out and back to see if it would help, it deleted the second post as well. Eventually I got them both posted, but not until I wasted a lot of time. I'd assume it was a WordPress problem, but other sites have been loading with images in weird places, or hotlinks unlclickable, or assorted other weird things. Grrrr. I dumped the caches on both Firefox and Safari, to see if that might help, but I haven't seen any reports of similar things online. Tonight I think I'll shut down the Macbook instead of just putting it to sleep to see if it makes any difference.

Anyway, here are my most recent blatherings about the PSP:

• How to Convert Homebrew Files to KXploit Form
  
• The PSP and Other Handhelds, A Visual Comparison
  
• Is it Possible to Run Homebrew on PSP Firmware 1.51 and 1.52?
  
• Where Can I Get Free PSP Demos?
  
• Shadow of Destiny Review
  
• Shadow of Destiny Screenshots
  
• Sony's PSP and Nintendo's Game Boy
  
• Can the PSPgo Run Homebrew?
  
• Can Homebrew Save the PSPgo?

So that's what I've been up to. next up for reviews is a not-quite-new release, Pangya Fantasy Golf and a PSP mini, Hysteria Project, plus I hope a first-impressions review based on the demo for Mod Nation Racers.

[BFG] Nothing to Report

I guess maybe I haven't been very geeky lately. Fringe and Doctor Who both have new episodes coming soon, though, and True Blood after that, so be prepared.

I've been playing Assassin's Creed when I can pry BillyZ away from his racing games long enough, and I really need to get started on Shadow of Destiny. Maybe this evening. Most of my reading has been non-fiction of the natural history sort, though I did just get some comics via BookMooch . . .

Um. Yeah. And I haven't got any more rejections for stories lately, though I have a number still out in the world. I have to get working on pitches/cover letters for my YA books so I can send those out.

Right now I should get started on an article on the PSP and Nintendo Game Boy. Last PSP article was a how-to on converting homebrew files to KXploit form, which you mostly don't need to do these days, but I want to be complete in my how-to homebrew series.

And that's about it for geekery from the BFG, herself.

[BFG] Latest Videogame Writing

Once upon a time, I started trying to cover more homebrew on my work site, About PSP, but I eventually gave up because it's so easy to get confused. I did succeed, however, in downgrading my PSP (an old PSP-1000 model) to firmware version 1.50, the best version for homebrew.

Lately, I've given it another shot, and started a series of articles on how to run homebrew on verious firmware versions and models of PSP. Here's the series so far, with many more to come in the weeks ahead.

• How to Run Homebrew on a Firmware 1.00 PSP
• How to Run Homebrew on a Firmware 1.50 PSP

I've also returned to a series of very fun, but perhaps not very traffic-attracting, articles on classic handheld gaming consoles. To make them suitable for the site, of course, I can't just write little historical sketches for each one. Instead, I have to relate them to the PSP, which has actually turned out to be a fun challenge, and I think may have resulted in somewhat better articles than I might otherwise have written. Here's that series (so far).

The PSP and the History of Handheld Videogaming

• Introduction to the Archaeology of the PSP
• The PSP and Milton Bradley's Microvision
• The PSP and Epoch's Game Pocket Computer

And in yesterday's mail I got a review copy of Konami's Shadow of Destiny, a remake (or maybe just a port, I'm not sure) of a 2001 PS2 game. That'll be my next review, sometime next week. My last review was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which I loved so much I'm going to download the original Silent Hill PSOne game to my PS3, and start playing through the whole series.

[BFG] Video Game Art Review

Video Game Art by Nic Kelman. New York: Assouline Publishing, 2005. (Cover image copyright Assouline Publishing and Konami.)

Being poor and a lover of books, I often find myself shopping in the remainder (aka "Bargain Books") section of Chapters, even though both Chapters (big box store for books) and the idea of remaindered books are a little dubious. Still, it's possible to get fantastic deals there, especially in art books.

Anyway, on my most recent trip, when the boy and I went after the holiday rush was over, one of the books I brought home was Video Game Art by Nic Kelman. I picked it up mostly because I'm interested in the whole phenomenon of digital art, and it's nice to have mementos of well-designed games that I'll probably never play again (for the same reason, I have art books from Gadget, Myst and Syberia--and the Syberia one is in French, of which I can read only a very small amount). The cover of the book does not inspire confidence, featuring a tacky lenticular image as it does, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot more than a superficial look at the art design of games coupled with some nice pictures.

So I was pleasantly surprised to discover a very readable scholarly essay on why we should count video games among the media allowed in the hallowed records of art history. The author placed particular emphasis on how games reflect myth and the heroic journey, which is a strong argument. It would be interesting to compare some video games with Joseph Campbell's hero's journey (even though I think Campbell vastly oversimplified mythology, he's very popular in film scholarship).

This book would make useful reading for game designers, as Kelman points out some of the ways game design has become codified (or petrified), and how it could venture into new territory. The emphasis is primarily on games with narrative structure, though there is some discussion of non-story-oriented games, too.

My primary quibbles with Video Game Art are physical. The gimicky cover I've already mentioned. The paper was also a little problematic. Though the heavy, smooth stock that the publisher chose was really good for reproducing the images, the book is not particularly large for an art book, so the stiffness of the pages made turning and holding them for reading more awkward than it should have been.

The really big issue was a printing problem. In at least three places, when a sentence broke off at the end of the page, it simply vanished and was never completed. And the last time this happened, instead of picking up at the next sentence or paragraph, the opening paragraphs of the chapter were repeated. Add this to the rampant minor typos, and the copyeditor in me was continually jarred out of the joy of reading the otherwise well-written prose.

Anyway, problems aside, Video Game Art is a useful addition to the so far scarce scholarly literature on video games.