Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 1

Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 (STGCC) was held at Suntec Convention Centre (level 4) this past weekend. I think it was a great event! :) It is always fun to see many displays of figurines, toys, games, comics... etc at one place, and see the many people ogling at their favourite toys.

Like last year, the Devilrobots designer was here to sign autographs and 'drew' something for those who purchase the toys. I was quite amazed by the variety of the To-Fu toys actually.

What was equally amazing is that To-Fu toys have invaded the stamps collecting circle! Thus there are now stamps sets (with competition organised by SingPost)and related game board sets for To-Fu Oyako.

Of course, the cute toys are not limited to To-Fu, and others like ugly dolls also made their appearance. It is weird to see so many of the ugly dolls piled up in the container. Mass ugliness? Lolz.

For those who are gachapon fans, there are plenty of capsules to choose from. Visitors can even change their notes for coins at the event.

Beside the collectible toys, there were also huge 'toys' walking around. Yupz, it was really fun to take pictures together with this pair of Mario Brothers. I didn't go to the event on the last day where the cosplay competition was held, or else there would be other more interesting photos. Nonetheless, there is a part 2 coming with more photos.

See also:
- Singapore Toys Games Comics Convention 2009 @ Suntec Part 2

Finally, I have my own domain name!

I haven't been blogging for the past couple of days because I was trying to get Blogger to work on my own customised domain names. It was not that easy for someone without any knowledge of the domain name stuff.

Well, the whole thing started when a friend alerted me to the current August promotion of $5 for a .sg domain name. You can get the list of participating registrars from SgNIC site. I got curious, and decided to get one, i.e. shadow.sg. I thought that is all about it, since Blogger's "publishing tab' stated clearly that

You're publishing on blogspot.com

Switch to: • Custom Domain (Point your own registered domain name to your blog)

Oh well, it was only after I got the domain name that I realised that no one host my DNS for me. The Blogger Help post about this subject is also not very helpful. After much searching I finally found this site, 'Setting Up a Custom Domain? Here's Advice'.

There is truly good advice on that site. :)

So yes, I finally got my own domain name!

Restaurant City - High Score of 50!

Yes I finally got the high score of 50 for ratings in Restaurant City, and it is done without the use of arcade machines!

Initially I only managed to have a score of 46.5. After some juggling of the employees (rotating 1 chef to be a waiter), and occasionally cleaning the toilet, I managed to get the score of 50 (second picture below).

The score is maintained or quite a while and not just a 'touch and go' rating. I guess the inclusion of the drinsk and fridge help, since there is no need to wait for the chef to cook up the dish when the drinks can be served instantly.

Ok, now the trick or next achievement is to get more dishes to level 20, including some drinks recipes!

Restaurant City - New 'Drinks' recipes & option to serve more dishes

Playfish's Restaurant City has just introduced a new drinks recipes, and thus the customers will now want drinks as well!

The drinks recipes currently available are
1) Glass of water
2) Expresso
3) Coffee
4) Tea (yes they introduce coffee beans and tea leaves!)
5) Chocolate milkshake
6) Strawberry milkshake
7) Lemonade (they introduce water and ice ingredients too!)
8) Peach ice tea (yes, you are right, peach too!)
9) Bubble tea
10) Fruit smoothie

The drinks are not served from stoves, i.e. unlike the traditional category of foods. The drinks are 'dispense' from new functional furniture, i.e. the drinks fridge and soda dispenser (shown below). The waiter and waitress will need access to the fridge or dispenser in order to get the drinks for the customers.

Other than drinks, Playfish has also allowed for more than 1 dish to be served per category. Thus those who have more than 1 dish at level 10, can enjoy more gourmet points while seeing more varieties of food served in the restaurant!

Yeah, the good thing about Playfish games is that there are constant updates, that makes the game more fun to play with.

See also:
- Restaurant City is up! Added Photo Feed and Gourmet Street

Fishing in Pet Society - New Function!

Pet Society has yet another new function after their recent garden / seeds planting addons. This time round it is a fishing pond where players can bait and fish different types of fishes! I must say that Playfish is quite innovative in their game designs. Quoting directly from Pet Society :

Go fishing in Pet Society! After a hard day of shopping, visiting friends, racing in the stadium and tending to your garden, we thought your pet might appreciate a little rest and relaxation. And what could be a better way to rest and relax than grabbing a fishing rod and some bait (something from the food shop will do) and heading out to the all new fishing pond in the middle of town to see what you can catch?

Once you've caught your fish you can put them in an aquarium in your home, so any visitors can see your fish collection. There are loads of different fish to find but lots of fish will only eat a particular type of bait, so try experimenting with all kinds of different foods.

Well, that seems nice. When I opened the program and got a new message alert, I know they have added new things.

Yupz you can buy fish tanks of different sizes and keep the fishes you got in them. It is sort of fun to see these new captures floating around in the tank. The darwback is that players will need to spend more coins to get fish baits. I got a squid, a starfish, and an empty bottle so far.

Fishing itself is not difficult. It is just a three step process of 1st click to activate the fish bait and throw out the fishing line. The second step is to click the pet (just once) when the fish bites. If you see splashing water, that means the fish is struggling and you must not click the pet. Else the fish will get away. I wasted two home grown banana because of this mistake. When the fish is nto struggling, keep clicking on the pet and soon you will see your haul!

The fishes don't sell for much currently, unlike the fruits from trees in the garden. Oh well, the fun is not to make coins, but in fishing! Have fun trying out fishing!

Geo Challenge on Facebook - by Playfish

After playing two great games (Pet Society and Restaurant City) by Playfish, it is not hard to persuade me to try out another of their older games on Facebook - Geo Challenge.

Geo Challenge is bascially a test of social geographical knowledge, i.e. countries, maps, cities, famous spots. here's the starting screen of the game. Do note that you need to complete all the tests before a score is given. If you quit the test halfway, you will need to restart from the 1st test.

The first of the three tests is Suitcase Shuffle, a test of knowledge about the different flags of the country. As time pass, the 'wrong answers' would fade out, leaving you with a choice among three remaining flags. Normally the harder questions will give more points, but difficulty is subjective I suppose. I always get mix up when I get flags of three horizontal stripes.

After the test, the scores will be tabulated. Players will gain extra points if they get the correct answers fast. Answering many correct questions in one go will also entitle the player to extra time (about 5 seconds I think). The next test is Map Mayhem which is a test of the location of the famous spots.

The last test is the City Blitz, where players need to locate the city on the world map. The more accurate you pin the city, the more points you get. If the players select the USA or Europe options, they get other tests.

The different points at the end of the game will entitle the players to 'ranks' and also trophies. Overall the game is not too bad, since it helps to improve my geographical knowledge. In terms of complexity I will still stick of Pet Society or Restaurant City though. :)

Google Chrome OS vs Microsoft OS!

There are plenty of discussions in the Internet about this coming big fight between the two IT giants - Google and Microsoft, over the Operating System space. Official news can be found on Google's blog, while there are plenty of other traditional news coverage, e.g. New York Times, and Channel Newsasia. Google's Chrome OS is targeting at netbooks with this new open source, light weight OS.

It is not surprising that Google is coming into this OS space. After Android, they would have had some experience in OS development. Moreover, Google started as an Internet based company more than the traditional desktop / work space based company, and thus its experience in Internet applications should naturally lead it to the main applications - Operating Systems.

What will be more interesting (other than the actual Chrome OS) is how Google plans to market this new OS. Google's Click Thru Rate based online advertising has completely changed the online adverts space. Their algo for their search, with a simple search site, has also changed search engine market, till the extent that the word 'google' has now morphed into a verb associated with the phrase 'online search'. Google's maps applications created mash-ups, not just for our terrestrial maps, but for the sky and the seas as well. Google's innovation for the Web has created deep ripples and shaped the Internet of today.

So how Google markets and 'sells' its OS will become a very important case study for those who plan to sell software linked to the Internet, and that is a huge market. Who will be its major partners? Which PC maker will be the first to adopt the OS shipped with its netbooks? Which government / major corporation will be the first to announce a complete changeover of its operating system to Chrome OS?

Of course, there is also the other angle of looking at this news; is Google turning into the next 'evil empire', whose applications and services reaches into every aspect of your life, and knows every single online activity you have done? Google Chrome running on Google Chrome OS, with Google Apps and such...scary?

Creating a YouTube Account - The First Time...

I've never uploaded any video clips and thus did not have a YouTube account. Recently there was an opportunity to take some pretty interesting Science related video and thus tonight I tried creating my very first YouTube video!

The process is simple, and that explains why the huge popularity with self created videos. The process is made simpler if you already have a Google account.

The process of uploading video is also simple. My video upload took nearly 10 minutes for a mere 15 seconds clip because I didn't know how to compress it accordingly. I'm sure there are ways of compressing the raw clip taken from digital camera into more user friendly files.

And so viola, here's the completed product! If you want to look at the Tesla Coil demonstration at the Science Centre, just click on the picture below to bring you to the YouTube page.

Restaurant City is up! Added Photo Feed & Gourmet Street

Restaurant City is up! Initially I was puzzled why there is a maintenance and wondered if Playfish will add in new features for Restaurant City. Some of the online forums have plenty of speculations about what Playfish will add after the maintenance.

Well, they added a Photo Feed function! This is similar to what we have for Pet Society actually so it is not that big a deal. Nonetheless it is still fun to have photos taken of your restaurants (and others too). You can also take photos at the 'Dress Yourself' function screen.

What is more interesting is the Gourmet Street! Now, instead of random street where you could take a look at the decoration of other unknown players, there is this Gourmet Street where most restaurants are well decorated and furnished! It is great to be able to get inspiration about how to decorate your own restaurant using ideas from among the best restaurants in the game.

Keep it up Playfish!

See also:
- Restaurant City: Latest Playfish Game in Facebook
- Restaurant City - New 'Drinks' recipes & option to serve more dishes

Want to know when the new fibre network will reach your home?

The news is out! There is now a website where you can key in your postal code and check the rough dates where the Next Gen National Broadband Network will reach your house.

With the latest network, you can surf from speed of 100Mbps. Currently the network is not ready yet but in the coming quarters we should be able to see commercial offerings.

Hmm I'm paying about $40 for my miserable 3Mbps due to contract. Hopefully by the time the new fibre network reaches my place, my contract will have expired and I can get better deals.

The website is http://rollout.opennet.com.sg/

I think the site is still somewhat buggy and so give them a couple more weeks to sort out the minor map bugs.

CommunicAsia 2009 - Quick Pictures

I was at Communic Asia 2009 today and took some pictures of the phones as well as the event itself. I didn't have enough time to really tour the place or ask more questions about the phones. The number of booths seems to be less and I didn't see any Sony Ericsson or SingTel booth. The CommunicAsia 2009, together with Broadcast Asia and Enterprise IT 2009, will be held from 16th to 19th June 2009 at the Singapore Expo.

Here's the pictures from the LG booth. I guessed I was impressed by the new LG GD900, the latest crystal slider phone with transparent keypad. It comes with a 8 megapixel camera!

Other than the booth girls, we also have the cute mascot! I think there was some lucky draw where lucky participants could walk away with free phones.

he new Viewty model (pic above) looks good. Of course, there were also display of the new phone models. Some were rather weird, e.g. these wrist phones. I think it is not the culture yet to have people speaking to their wrists. T

Of course, we also have the Samsung Mobile booth!

Omnia series continued to be the main highlight I believe.

Yupz, we have the Samsung Galaxy powered by the Google Android. More applications coming for wider range of phones.

Ok that is a very quick post about the CommunicAsia 2009 event and we will definitely see more blogs about it over the next few days. :) Other than phones, there were also a number of interesting announcements, including an extended Wireless@SG programme with higher speed of 1Mbps, that will last until March 2013. So yupz this will be an exciting week!

Afternote:
Here's two more pictures, one of the Powerwave racing car, and the Yahoo! free drinks. Not sure why are there racing cars actually. Free drinks are great crowd pullers, but the two times I was there Yahoo! said their slurpee had not frozen enough yet. Hmm.

Pet Society - New Gardens Function

Pet Society is up after some maintenance and Playfish added in new gardens for everyone! I think everyone has one to two gardens depending on your pet's level. The garden is pretty empty and you can plant seeds to grow vegetables, flowers and trees! My tree has grown a little since last night (lower right).

Together with the gardens, Playfish has also introduced the garden shop that sells you seeds and pots, and potted plants. The seeds are quite expensive, ranging from 100 to 500 coins.

Here's the description of the different seeds that you can buy. I think they will add other new options in future. Planting the seeds is as easy as dragging the seeds from your inventory to the dirt spots in the gardens. It will be fun to grow a fly eater plant. Hmm.

Well, the new garden function makes Pet Society interesting to play again. Keep up the good work Playfish! Guess it's worth the wait during the maintenance.

Oh, after the plants are grown you can sell them for coins or eat them as food! See the pic below.

See also:
- Pet Society in Facebook

Lawmakers & Games

It is a curious phenomenon that people like the lawmakers who have no extensive knowledge of games, often want to impose their views and opinions on those who play games. Just a couple of days ago Germany news announced that 16 Interior Ministers have banded together to ask their Parliament to ban the production and distribution of violent video games.

What is violent video games? If 'violent' is the main concern, then should video movies be banned as well? What is violent is the first place? Isn't violence linked to a society's norms? If so, that is a changing norm which cannot be defined clearly enough to be put into law, right?

I wonder why would intelligent people like lawmakers want to define ever changing boundaries into hard set laws. Perhaps the industry would be in a better position to have self imposed rating systems, and encourage the parents to be more vigilant about the games their kids play. Afterall, scoping the social norms for children is part and parcel of the responsibilities of their parents isn't it?

MyBrute on iPhone and iPod Touch!

MyBrute is coming on iPhone and iPod touch. This is announced on the game page itself. There will also be new features and skills. Wonder if the MyBrute apps will be free or will it come with a cost on iPhone.

Other than the announcement, there are also YouTube videos of MyBrute. I'm not sure about the authenticity of the video though, but it looks real enough.


See also:

- Abilities in MyBrute (some)
- MyBrute Flash Game - Simple Review

Restaurant City: Latest Playfish Game in Facebook

Playfish has created yet another popular hit with Restaurant City in Facebook. Restaurant City is a simple and yet addictive game where you operate a restaurant with choice of your own friends as cook, waiters, and cleaners. Dishes are created from ingredients, and there are a few ways of getting them.

Starting Out:
When you first started in the game, you would be prompted to select two of your friends to be employees of the restaurants. You could also choose yourself as an employee. Be careful who you choose as employees since sacking an employee requires a severance pay of $200.

After selecting the employees, you could assign them jobs as waiter or cook, and voila the restaurant starts operations! Once you have enough cash you could buy nicer clothes for the employees, e.g. chef's hat, sushi master' stop...etc. As the restaurant operates, you would also earn gourmet points. With sufficient points the level of the restaurant goes up. Leveling up the restaurant means you could hire more employees or get a bigger restaurant.

One thing to note is that gourmet points are earned only when the main restaurant is operating. If the player visit other restaurants, or go into the dish selection menu, or restaurant decoration menu, only coins will be earned and not gourmet points.

Coins are earned when your waiters cleared the empty plates left by customers. Each plate earns you 2 coins, regardless of the level of the dish. You could also shake the trees (similar to Pet Society) and 1 coin may drop out of the trees. Leveling up or earning awards will also entitle the player to coins / cash. There were some sites that advertise about cheat engines and such, but I think it is not much point cheating a game like Restaurant City since there isn't exactly a win / lose concept embed in the game.

Dishes & Ingredients:
The restaurant serves 3 types of dishes each time, starter, main and dessert. You could earn new dishes, or level up the existing dishes via the use of ingredients. Higher level dishes give more gourment points per customer served by 0.2. Thus a level 6 dish will earn the player 2.0 points per customer while a level 1 dish earns only 1.0 gourmet point. Higher level dishes also comes with nicer sounding name, e.g. luxurious, delicious...etc. The plates design for higher level dishes are also nicer.

Getting Ingredients
There are four ways of getting more ingredients. 1) Every day as you logged into the game, you would be rewarded with an ingredient. 2) There will also be a food quiz everyday, and answering correctly at the quiz earns you yet another ingredient. 3) First visit to new restaurants started by your friends will also earn you with a new ingredient. 4) Restuarnt City has just started a new function of 'Ingredient Market' where 3 different types of ingredients could be bought with coins each day.

More likely than not, there will be extra ingredients and players could trade among themselves for the correct ingredients for their dishes. If your friends didn't locked their ingredients, you could trade with them freely. If the ingredients are locked, a message will be sent to inform them that you requested to trade these ingredients.

Decorations & Layout:
Restaurant City offers many different ways of decorating the restaurant. The external view could be changed quite easily with coins to create different themes. New windows, decorations, trees, signboards are available often.

Similarly the interior layout of the restaurant could be changed. Unlike the exterior decorations, the interior layout plays a more important role. Functional items like toilet are needed once you reach certain levels (8 if I am not wrong).

The layout of the tables and chairs also determine how customer walk around the restaurant. Some players have suggested to arrange the restaurant like a maze, so that customers take longer to walk to the chair. It is also useful to arrange the tables and chairs such that the waiter minimises the walking distance from the chef to the customer.

One thing to note is that the stove design does not change the speed of dish cooking. The different designs are purely aesthetic.

So it may be better to arrange the chairs and table such that waiters are confined with a smaller space. Leave the corners for toilets and such.

Each satisfied customer will add to the popularity index, which means new customers will come in faster. Each time the customer is disappointed, e.g. too long a waiting time, or dirty restaurant, points will be deducted.

Give Restaurant City a try! The game is fun, and the only drawback is the slightly longer waiting time to load the game. New functions are constantly added. There is now a rating system where other players could become critics and rate your restaurant as well.

See also:
- Restaurant City is up! Added Photo Feed & Gourmet Street