The House of Hitstun

Artist Alley Arcade Stick

Friday, January 31st, 2014 at 3:20 am | Image

I’ve always wanted to put some one-of-a-kind hand-drawn art in my Qanba Q4RAF, so at last weekend’s Ohayocon, I brought a blank template and and asked a couple of the artists there to draw their original characters. The team of Iota Soul knocked it out of the park with Killer Bee on the left side. Kuroitenshi added her D&D fighter on the right side and gave me some crucial advice on how to complete the design from there. I drew some Vewlix lines at the top, put it in the stick, and changed all the buttons out to black and white to complete the hand-drawn sketch look.

So many photos on this blog lately. Maybe I should have made a Tumblr instead.

Problem is, hitstun.tumblr.com is already taken. Some jerk registered my name, posted once, and abandoned it.

For this post, I'm actually doing the Facebook cross-post as a photo upload instead of a link post. Since it's a photo, I get to tag Killer Bee and Fighter to include links to their creators.

Here's a scan of the finished design that is now in the arcade stick. Click this image for the full 300dpi version.

This replaces my previous art on that stick, which is all about Kohaku from Melty Blood, a series of really nice doujin fighting games that never made it out of Japan.

I retired this stick art last night at Fight Night at Donatos on OSU campus. I played Melty Blood for the first time in months.

For some reason, WordPress is having trouble with my full size designs. Click the photo for the 300dpi version.

Also, here’s the template I printed out for Ohayocon. Click the template below for the 300dpi version, and it will print at just the right size for the Qanba Q4RAF.

You'll want to actually click this for the 300dpi version that fits the Qanba Q4RAF. If you've got an Eightarc Fusion, just remove the Start button.

Sources: A white and red Qanba Q4RAF, buttons, and bubble top from Video Games New York, replacement plexiglass from Focus Attack (out of production), Iota Soul, Kuroitenshi, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code PC version, Zerochan, and the Qanba thread at Shoryuken

Jamaican bobsled team raises $30,000 in dogecoin

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014 at 2:46 am | Image

You know Bitcoin? The crypto-currency that’s about as fake as real money? It’s apparently big enough that there was a need for an alternative. Liam Butler likes that doge meme so he created dogecoin. He also liked Cool Runnings so he started a fund, Dogesled, to send the Jamaican bobsled team to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. They raised 27 million dogecoins, or $30,000.

I…I couldn’t make this stuff up.

So meme. But money? Much real. Such surprise. Wow.

Source: Jamaican Bobsled Team – Dogecoin Fund via RT
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Wallpaper Watchface

Friday, January 17th, 2014 at 10:10 pm | Image

For Android Pebble users, Canvas for Pebble makes plenty of information available to your watchfaces. It’s hard to display much information on such a small screen and still look nice. For Wallpaper Watchface, the time is still large and in charge, and the other two lines are stuffed with so much small text and icons that the screen takes about 20 seconds to load. Missed calls and unread messages make new notifications appear on top of the large wallpaper image. Replace that Pebble Beach wallpaper with any graphic you want from your phone.

Wallpaper Watchface was built on Canvas for Pebble v2.0.6 beta which requires Pebble firmware 2.0 beta 5. If you have that stuff installed, click the links below on your phone to install the appropriate screen on your Pebble.

Wallpaper Watchface Imperial
Wallpaper Watchface Metric

It's tricky to photograph e-ink displays indoors, let alone time the shot to the second...

Ick, this preview looks ugly. This is why I took a photo of the watch itself.

Source: My wrist again, Canvas for Pebble v2.0.6 beta, and Greg V Music – Lone Cypress Tree, Pebble Beach CA
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Canvas for Pebble

Monday, January 13th, 2014 at 10:10 pm | Image

UPDATE: I made another Canvas screen called Wallpaper Watchface. Go get that one instead. It’s better.

Wearable devices are the next big thing in tech. I’ve jumped on the bandwagon with a Pebble, and I want to develop for it. On Android, Canvas for Pebble lets you quickly make watchfaces that nicely display the time, date, weather, and your phone’s unread message and missed call counts. I took a few hours and made a watchface I like that displays seconds, and you can have it too.

If you want to try on the Dr. Mo Day 1 watchface, you’ll need a Pebble running firmware 2.0 beta and Canvas for Pebble 2.0 beta. These should still work when Pebble 2.0 and Canvas for Pebble 2.0 are released. Once that’s installed, visit this post on your phone and click the version you want below.

Dr. Mo Day 1 Imperial
Dr. Mo Day 1 Metric

Ever notice how almost every watch ad has the time set to 10:10? Analog watches look better that way, but I'm not so sure about digital watches.

It's a lot harder to fake the time on a cell phone.

Source: My blog’s first ever selfie, Numberphile, and Canvas for Pebble
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Maldita Castilla

Saturday, January 4th, 2014 at 11:00 pm | Game | Video

Locomalito makes hard traditional 2D games that can be beaten in one sitting, and he releases them for free out of his love of arcade culture. Check out Maldita Castilla, his love letter to dark Nintendo Hard platform games like Ghosts ‘n Goblins and Castlevania. Most of the monsters come from Spanish myths we don’t normally see in video games. Find the hidden Moura’s Tear item in each stage and try not to lose your soul. The developer also made Hydorah, a brutally difficult horizontal scrolling shooter with powerups.

For God and Castile!

Source: Maldita Castilla – Locomalito and YouTube
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