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Supanova 2011 – LinkageAX’s Weekend Day 2

Benjamin Webb
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2

Ah Supanova, how fun you were to us over the weekend 😀 Out of both days of the event, I remember the second day being the most fun considering all of the celebrity interviews we obtained, the panels we attended and having a massive Capsule Computers party at the event (party as in Final Fanstasy meaning, not so much alcohol and house trashing). Be sure to check out Day 1 if you haven’t already.

Day 2

Today’s event was much smoother from the time we were allowed in. I managed to buy some Star Wars: Legacy trade paper backs (the final three! *finally* get to see the series end) before I met up with Kelly at the event. After meeting up, we took a quick walk around and decided to play some Child of Eden at the GAME booth. Man, that game can be difficult sometimes! A friend of mine bumped into me while I was playing and asked me about the game. Unfortunately, I was in gaming mode an I’m sure my answer was close to undecipherable. Apologies.

After our time gaming, we headed down to the Guest area to interview Sean Maher, who everyone knows best from FireFly and Serenity. He played Dr. Simon Tam and is quite cool. Sean is an amazing guy and we absolutely loved him! Also, during the interview, when he faux punched me in the face, I landed on my sunglasses and they broke. TROPHY! The interview went really well and you can watch it here.

Thanks Sean! 😀 TROPHY!

Shortly after our interview with Sean Maher, we were able to score an interview with David Nykl! Who you all may know as Zelenka from Stargate Atlantis! That brings us to a total of two SGA cast members interviewed, I hope that in coming months and years that we are able to get the entire main cast. Anyways, we were only able to get ~10mins with him due to his signing obligations (and 5 of those were spent teaching us camera physics) but we ended up with an amazing interview and are incredibly greatful for the opportunity to meet him. Be sure to check out the interview here!

 

After completing this batch of interviews, we headed off to meet up with some other editors here at Capsule Computers, Spike and Grace, and hung out for a bit. We ended up going to meet the voice actor of Tychus Findlay (Of StarCraft) and Optimus Prime (Transformers, Robots in disguise), who is played by Neil Kaplan. Neil is such a friendly guy, I think we had a fair few of us get our autographs with him, which was great! We also got an interview with him, which *updated* Link here!.

KAMEHAMEHA!!!!

During this point in time, we also managed to check out the Kamehameha contest. This contest is now a staple at every convention here in Australia and is always entertaining to watch. For this edition of the contest, I’m kind of glad a serious entry won, as opposed to a silly entry, even if the winner was a small child with the cute factor going into it. The final round was a small Goku versus a Gengar (the pokemon). The winner recieved a very nice gaming headset, courtesy of Razer, as well as Razer themed clothing. The runner up also recieved clothing, but no headset. Gratz’ winner and runner up!

After scoring our interview and checking out the Kamehameha contest (as well as a little bit of the cosplay comp while waiting for Neil) we bumped into a friend of mine who is a quite popular cosplayer. On this day, he was walking around as a boxed pokedex for his costume, complete with working pokedex noises. Nice. He was also accompanied by a Cloud cosplayer, that we managed to convince to let us hold his sword (that’s what she said). We got some pretty cool photos of it.

Oh, did I forget to mention that it was a Buster Sword?

After spending some time exploring, we went down to see Barbara Eden, with whom we were able to interview about various things. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do a video interview, for various reasons, but were still able to record a voice interview. Be sure to check out our transcript here! Barbara was incredibly nice and beautiful! I know that both Kelly and Myself were quite proud to have met her.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, having fun and the like. I ran into more people I know, like the Project Ouroborous team (they do Umberella Corps cosplays). We ended up buying some merchandise and maybe even a sword.

Tallies for the weekend

Energy Drinks Consumed – 4 (1 on the way to Sydney, 2 at the convention and 1 on the way home)
Merchandise Obtained – 9 (3 shirts (Brewfest, Highschool of the Dead and Dungeons & Dragons), 3 Star Wars comics, a Soul Eater wallet, a Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann keychain and a Devil May Cry 4 armband)
Photos taken – Many, not sure about the others though (mine were 3DS ones, which can be found here).
People met – New ~6-7, Pre-Known ~15-20
Capsule Computers Staff in attendance (known) – ~5-6

Parrot AR.Drone Review

Alexis Ayala
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Parrot AR.Drone
Developer: Parrot
Price: AUD $349 USD $299
Platform: iOS (coming soon to Android)

Overview:

I remember the first time I laid eyes on a Parrot AR.Drone, I knew immediately that I had to play with it. How could I not? Let’s be honest here, this thing looks like it’s from the future. A quadricopter that you control with your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (coming soon to Android), the AR.Drone does pretty much deliver on it’s initial wow factor even if it has a couple of small downsides that go along with it.

Hardware:

On first impression the AR.Drone is actually much lighter then I had initially expected. Out of the box it comes with two casings, one with bumpers for indoor use and another without for outdoor adventures. You can swap the shells out really easily, everything fits over the front facing camera and connects to the back with a magnet. It’s able to take a bit of damage but will ultimately start to break down on you after too many big crashes. Fortunately, Parrot has an online store for anything you might want to replace if it comes to that.
There are two cameras equipped on the AR.Drone, the forward facing clocks in at a resolution of 640X480, and delivers somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15 FPS. The bottom camera is actually a bit lower at a 176X144 resolution but the FPS is notably higher. You’re able to fly the quadricopter using only the cameras and it’s perfectly serviceable in that regard, but I found just keeping it within line of sight always worked best. The unit I received came with 2 batteries in the box, which is fantastic as they only last about 40-50 minutes per charge. Recharging takes about 90 minutes so as long as you’re on top of keeping one on the charger you’re never going to have to wait too long to get back in there.

Usage:

There’s a free iOS App to pilot the AR.Drone and you’re able to connect to it via a Wi-Fi signal the quadricopter puts out. Once connected it’s actually rather easy to control. There’s a little bit of a learning curve but after just a few minutes of playing around with it you’ll be flying like a pro. Take off and landing are handled automatically with a button and you’re able to control flight with onscreen thumbsticks or motion controls. I never ran into a situation where the AR.Drone became off balance or spazzed out on me, there’s also some nice touches like if you’re out of range from the Wi-Fi signal, the device will softly land itself.
Unfortunately we were only sent one so we didn’t get a chance to try out some of the AR Apps like AR.Pursuit, which is a cat and mouse chase game. As of this writing Parrot has released new game Apps for iOS such as AR.Race, which gives you the ability to make your own circuits and AR.FlyingAce, which is a multiplayer dogfight game. Parrot has also released an open API for developers to create their own Apps, so expect even more support in the future. This is actually the most exciting thing I find about the AR.Drone; since it’s an open platform to develop on we’re going to see some really innovative stuff in the future. There’s already some Apps which allow you to record using the cameras for all you amateur film makers (given the resolution is pretty low, but it’s neat none the less).

Real World Applications:

I was able to affix cotton balls to the AR.Drone with some tape and ingenuity to disguise it as a cloud… Which for the most part worked fairly well I’d say. I then followed it around making thunderous noises as a friend of mine sprinkled water on people. To my disappointment I was unsuccessful in fooling anyone that a cloud was actually following them regardless of how realistic my thunder noises may be. I can only assume that since the propellers were visible it lost the illusion as clouds typically (or so I’m told) don’t come equipped with them. I tried to create a better disguise for the quadricopter, but unfortunately it wasn’t able to lift off. However, every single person who came across the magical cloud with propellers thought it was amazingly cool and was extremely curious as to what it was. After being the good samaritan and directing them where they might learn more about the AR.Drone I called it a day.


Conclusion:

I’m not going to lie. If I could go back in time and give the AR.Drone to myself when I was obsessing with RC toys as a child I don’t think I would be able to calculate how amazed I would be. So let me be frank: the AR.Drone is easily the coolest RC style device I’ve ever heard of or seen. It has some small issues, like a low resolution camera or the inability to disguise itself convincingly as a cloud, but if you’ve got $349 burning a hole in your pocket and this seems like its something you’d be into, then I implore you to pick one up. With the API out there’s only going to be more and more support. So play with a toy from the future and try out an AR.Drone. You’ll have a smile on your face, I guarantee it.

8-0-capsules-out-of-10
____

Check out the interview we did with the guys from Parrot.

Kirby TV Channel launches tomorrow in EU, Australia and NZ

Jack Joly
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The adorable pink blob Kirby is returning to Wii on 23rd June, 2011, as part of his own dedicated TV Channel. The Kirby TV Channel will be available across much of Europe, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, as a completely free download that will feature TV shows staring Kirby as he battles King Dedede in Dream Land.

The channel will allow you to view over 50 Kirby episodes that will be updated twice a week over a six month period. Every week, two new episodes will become available – one on a Monday and one on a Thursday. The episodes will be available to view for two weeks before being archived to make way for new episodes. Fans of Kirby will be able to check the programming schedule just like a real TV channel and choose from four streaming episodes at a time.

The Kirby TV Channel will be available to fans in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Greece, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Australia and New Zealand. Most episodes will be available in English, German, French and Italian with only a few exceptions.

I will definitely be checking this out. Is anyone else excited?

3DS eShop releases: Nintendo downloads for Thursday 22nd June

Jack Joly
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With a new day for updating their download services of Thursday, here are the week’s downloads from Nintendo:

  • Double Dragon (3DS Virtual Console, Arc System Works: £2.70)
  • Radar Mission (3DS Virtual Console, Nintendo: £2.70)
  • Just Sing: 80s Collection (DSiWare: DTP Young Entertainment, 500 Nintendo Points)
  • Delbo (DSiWare: Neko Entertainment, 200 Nintendo Points)

Interestingly, there aren’t any Wii downloads confirmed as yet, but the 3DS eShop is being padded out nicely. One of this week’s highlights is Double Dragon which comes to the 3DS Virtual Console service courtesy of Arc System Works. The title was originally released for Game Boy in 1990 and sees Jimmy and Billy Lee taking on rival gangs, beating them up to assert their superiority.

Madman Fanzone Competitions (June – July 2011)

Luke Halliday
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Madman Fanzone Competitions (June – July 2011)

Madman regularly hold competitions in the fanzone section of their site and recently began two new competitions, in two separate categories – Art and Cosplay. Want to jump in on the action? Read on.

Madman Anime Babies Art Competition:

What would your favourite anime character’s look like as babies? That is the question Madman poses you in this months art competition. Compose your artwork displaying an anime character as a baby for your chance to win Madman store vouchers (1st Place is a $150 voucher!) Enter here.

Madman K-ON! Cosplay Competition:

With the upcoming release of K-ON! volume 1 on DVD and Blu-Ray, Madman is holding a K-ON! themed cosplay competition to celebrate the release. Madman is tasking you with the challenge of taking a photograph of yourself or with your friends, cosplaying as characters from K-ON! in either an original image or a recreation of a scene from the series for your chance to win some great K-ON! prizes. Enter here.

Here’s an idea for a recreation cosplay.

The art competition comes to a close on the 10th of July and the cosplay competition ends on 31st of July. Be sure to check back here at Capsule Computers for updates on the competitions and the winners announcement.

Backbreaker Vengeance crashing into XBLA and PSN

Jack Joly
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Backbreaker Vengeance crashing into XBLA and PSN

505 Games and NaturalMotion Games have announced that Backbreaker Vengeance will be coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade on 29 June, 2011, while a PSN version will also be released later this Summer.

Using the euphoria engine, Backbreaker Vengeance features hard-hitting tackles with a different outcome each time. As well as the popular ‘Tackle Alley’ game mode, new modes and moves will be making their way into the game.

No price has been revealed for either version as of this moment in time.

Any American Football fans prefer Backbreaker’s more arcade approach to some of the more simulation-like portrayals of the sport out there?

May’s Mysteries: The Secret of Dragonville gets first trailer

Jack Joly
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0

 

Publisher Mastertronic has unveiled a new trailer for its upcoming puzzle adventure game called May’s Mysteries: The Secret of Dragonville.

Although the trailer doesn’t show a great deal of continuous gameplay, it displays extracts from a selection of the letter, number and logic-based puzzles, as well as giving a look at a number of the 13 rhythmic mini-games. The video also shows a whole host of intriguing character that you will meet across the 80 locations as you complete over 270 puzzles, as stated in the trailer. Developed by V5 Play, May’s Mysteries is looking like a heart-warming adventure in which the titular hero must try to find her lost brother.

May’s Mysteries: The Secret of Dragonville is to be released on exclusively for Nintendo DS this August.

Fairy Tail English Dub Cast Announced

Luke Halliday
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0

Funimation recently acquired the popular anime series Fairy Tail for dubbing and distribution. The series follows the adventures of the Fairy Tail Guild in a world of Wizards (a broad term for magic-users). Funimation today announced the main cast for the series which includes some of their all-star voice actors, from works such as One Piece, Dragonball Z and Soul Eater, just to name a few.

The following actors have been tapped to play the following characters:

  • Todd Haberkorn as Natsu Dragneel
  • Tia Ballard as Happy
  • Colleen Clinkenbeard as Erza Scarlet
  • Cherami Leigh as Lucy Heartfillia
  • Newton Pittman as Gray Fullbuster
  • R. Bruce Elliot as Master Makarov
  • Monica Rial as Mirajane
  • Christopher R. Sabat as Elfman

To promote the upcoming English dub release of the series, Todd Haberkorn, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Cherami Leigh and Newton Pittman will be making an appearance at New York Anime Festival and New York Comic-Con this October. So be sure to check them out if you are in the area this October.

It is as of writing still unknown when we will see a release of the series’ English dub. However with a cast as good as this, we can safely assume that it is in good hands, while we await it to be released.

Duke Nukem Forever Behind the Scenes video

Jack Joly
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A new video for Duke Nukem Forever entitled ‘History of a Legend’ has been released by 2K Games. It is the third episode of a behind the scenes series aiming to inform about the roots of Duke Nukem Forever now it has finally made it to the public- the game everyone said could never be released.

The video features interviews with our good friend Randy Pitchford, as well as plenty of other designers and developers, taking a look at their history with the game and the impact it has had on them. The near-10 minute trailer also takes a look at how Duke Nukem Forever has evolved over the years to become what it is today.

It may have got mixed reviews, but if you liked the Duke’s recent offering or are just a big fan of the legacy of the series, this is well worth a watch with some interesting comments from those behind the game.

Dead or Alive Dimensions Reclassified in Australia

Benjamin Webb
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1

Good news everyone! Recently revoked game Dead or Alive Dimensions for the 3DS has recently been reclassified to a newer and more relevant rating. This rating? It has gone up from a PG to an M rating, which is actually not that much of an increase.

You see here in Australia, anything with a rating of less than MA15+ is an unrestricted category, which means that anybody can purchase the title without proof of identity or parental consent. So really, the reclassification has bumped the rating upwards, but not in any significant way to affect the player base. Thank the gaming gods for the classification bodies decision not to cave into these highly moral and illogical complainers and releasing the game at a classification that fits the content.

Woooo!

LINK!!!

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