Author Archives: TheUser

Catching Up

Funny how I only do these little summary posts now.
Quarter went okay. I got an A, B+, and B-. I’m feeling really burned out though. The second half of last quarter didn’t feel too great, and this one’s not feeling all that great either. I just wish there was some sort of break from it besides these little one week pieces of crap. My classes do seem interesting this quarter though.
A few weeks ago gem and I went to a science fiction convention in LA. I’m not sure if I ever mentioned it. I met Ray Park, who played Darth Maul among other cool characters, along with Daniel Logan, who played young Boba Fett. I took my photo with them and purchased an autographed picture of Park. Earlier that same day, gem and I found two all white bunnies on campus. There are a lot of bunnies around, but I’ve never seen white ones on campus. One had black spots, and one was completely white. gem and I were both able to pet one of them too! It was pretty awesome in all actuality. I should post pictures somewhere. Actually, look on Facebook in the next couple of days.
For my birthday, I went to TGIF with gem, Antonio, and Allison at midnight of my birthday so I could order drinks. Later that day, at a normal dinner time, I went out for a more secluded dinner. Then on Friday I went out with 12 guests to BJ’s. It was fun 🙂 Those pictures are up courtesy of Ratana. I haven’t posted my own yet. I guess I’m lazy. Plus, none of the photo hosts really please me. DeviantArt is for art… Facebook’s alright I guess… MySpace doesn’t really support large amounts of photos… flickr I just don’t get (I’d prefer albums, etc.). I guess Facebook’ll do.
Break was a welcome, er, break, from school. I hung out with Edward and my brother a bit, and then William came over. He stayed most of the week. I guess he hates Long Beach, which is understandable, lol. We watched TMNT, lots of Scrubs, beat Alien Hominid, and beat Metal Slug 6. I also beat episode 4 of Doom (the original) over break as well as Shadow of the Colossus. Shadow of the Colossus is an amazing game that I won’t really bother going into depth about here, but trust me, it’s amazing. I’m playing through a second time now, and I ordered Ico off of eBay earlier this week. William sold me his N64 too. Yay.
Disneyland. Went there too. It’s so much fun. I picked up an annual pass too, although I guess I don’t have that many people to go with anymore. Still, fun!
Also over break, William, my gf, and I built my LEGO Ultimate Collector’s Edition Imperial Star Destroyer. It’s truly awesome. Truly indeed. Takes up half of my dining room table now.
I ordered four tshirts off of Threadless today. They’re so awesome. One has 99 red balloons on it. How great is that? Reminds me of Alex =D
Next weekend I’m going on vacation to Vegas for three days. I’m looking forward to that.
I guess that’s a quick (maybe not so quick) summary of life.

Sonic Team

Note: This was originally published in March as part of the Campus Village Chronicles.
Being an important game developer for twenty years, Sonic Team is one of the most influential game creators in the industry. Sonic Team has been an internal division of SEGA for most of its existence. Although Sonic Team made many important games, it is best known for its Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
Sonic the Hedgehog, the first game in the series, was made before Sonic Team adopted that name. From 1988 to 1991, the developer now known as Sonic Team was known as Sega AM8, but changed their name due to the popularity of its Sonic the Hedgehog1.When Sonic the Hedgehog was released for the Genesis, or Mega Drive as it was known in Japan, Mario was the most recognizable video game character in the industry. As such, the Super Mario series set the standard for platform games, which are games that involve much
jumping such as Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, and many other popular games. While the Mario series encouraged players to move slowly, as evident by warp pipes and power-ups such as the flower that prove vital, Sonic the Hedgehog encouraged players to race through the levels. Not only did the game want to be played quickly, but Sonic himself did as well. Leaving Sonic alone for a few moments, players are rewarded with Sonic tapping his foot and looking annoyed.
The game was designed to take advantage of console’s capabilities, with colorful backgrounds full of animation and high quality sounds, often times with multiple sounds playing simultaneously2. Comparing almost any screen of Sonic the Hedgehog to a screen of its competition, Super Mario World, shows much more movement and color in Sonic the Hedgehog. The music is still remixed today.
The Sonic series continues to be popular, although its popularity has been declining. While the 2D series, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles are commonly considered some of the best games ever made, Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were released to mixed opinions. Most people were unhappy with Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Sonic and the Secret Rings has just been released for the Wii. It has received good reviews, but it is too soon to tell how successful it will be.
In addition to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sonic Team has made other important contributions to the video game industry as well. NiGHTS into Dreams was a popular Sega Saturn game. I spoke with a used game salesman at a convention last month, and he informed me that NiGHTS into Dreams, commonly referred to as NiGHTS, is still the most frequently requested Sega Saturn game. NiGHTS is, for the most part, a platformer, but much of the game is played while the character is flying rather than walking or running, which was quite original and still something not seen often. The levels were very imaginative and visually pleasing. Also, NiGHTS contained an A-life, or artificial life, system, which was the precursor to the A-life Chao system of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.
ChuChu Rocket! for the Sega Dreamcast was an addicting, fast paced puzzle game created by Sonic Team. It was the first online game for a console to gain popularity. In the game, both ChuChus (mice) and KapuKapus (cats) run in a straight line, turning right when they hit a wall. When a KapuKapu comes into contact with a ChuChu, the ChuChu is eaten. ChuChus are safe once they reach a rocket. Arrows can be placed on the board which will cause the ChuChus and KapuKapus to run in the direction the arrows are pointing. In arcade mode, the goal is to have as a high a score possible. One point is earned for each ChuChu that reaches a rocket. If a KapuKapu reaches the rocket, the score lowers a certain amount. Only three arrows can be placed at a time, with the earliest place arrow being removed when a new arrow is placed. In puzzle mode, the goal is to have all ChuChus reach the rocket without any KapuKapus touching the rockets or the ChuChus. Each level has a different limit as to how many arrows can be placed, although all of them can be placed at the same time. ChuChu Rocket! was rereleased on Game Boy Advance, and there is a Flash version on the Web as well.
The Dreamcast also featured a Sonic Team game called Samba de Amigo, a music game. In this game, players plugged maracas into the Dreamcast and had to shake them with the song. It is currently one of the more sought after Dreamcast games, with the maracas being very hard to come by. Another popular game series created by Sonic Team is Phantasy Star. Sonic Team is responsible for Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star Online, and Phantasy Star Universe. While Phantasy Star was an RPG made in the late 1980s, Phantasy Star Online, or PSO, was a massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing game, first designed for the Dreamcast. PSO was one of the first console MMOs. Unlike many other MMOs, PSO allowed players to play their characters both online and offline without distinguishing between an online character and an offline character. Phantasy Star Universe was recently released for all major consoles and is the successor of Phantasy Star Online.
The last games I plan on discussing are Feel the Magic: XY/XX and The Rub Rabbits! Feel the Magic: XY/XX, or Feel the Magic as it is commonly referred to, was a launch title for the Nintendo DS. The game consists solely of minigames that contain elements such as blowing in the microphone, rubbing the screen, tracing or drawing lines, and tapping. The storyline is simple: while trying to woo a particular girl, another man tries to impress her and eventually kidnaps her. You must save her and impress her to win her heart. The game has very simple yet stylish graphics that have a very 70s feel to them. The input features and gameplay are what make this game so important. The DS was the first widely used video game device to have a touchscreen and microphone built in to the unit. While minigames such as Yacht, which have the player blow into the microphone to blow a yacht out to sea in order to save the girl, might seem ridiculous, they are actually very fun and proved to many the ingenuity of Nintendo’s new console. Feel the Magic paved the way for future DS games, showing just what kind of unorthodox gameplay methods were available. While less important than Feel the Magic: XY/XX, The Rub Rabbits! is its sequel. It features very similar gameplay, although its minigames are different. In my opinion it is just as fun as the first game.
Sonic Team was founded by Yuji Naka1. In May of 2006, Naka left Sonic Team to establish another game development studio, PROPE1. PROPE has not yet released any games1. Naoto Oshima, the character designer of Sonic the Hedgehog and his enemy, Doctor Eggman, left Sonic Team to form the studio Artoon1,3. Artoon has created multiple games, none of which have gained much popularity.
Hopefully the importance of Sonic Team to the video game industry is now evident. Its games aren’t just fun. Many of them have been revolutionary, changing the way games are played. No matter what Sonic Team creates in the future, its game are sure to be amazing.
1 Sonic Team, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Team
2 Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_%2816-bit%29
3 Naoto Oshima, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naoto_Oshima

Chinese New Year

Adrian Tripp’s Chinese New Year program was a great chance to eat some good food, have fun with friends, and learn about another culture. Upon reaching his apartment, all the doors and windows were noticeably opened. Guests received red envelopes, which Adrian explained traditionally held money but at his event held information about the holiday. These red envelopes are also referred to as red packets. According to the Wikipedia entry

New Old Games

I think I’ve been on an old game buying kick lately. They could slip away soon so I need to get them while I can. Last year I bought Sonic the Hedgehog and Ecco the Dolphin for Genesis and Sonic CD and Ecco the Dolphin: Tides of Time for Sega CD. Recently, I bought Super Magnetic Neo, Chu Chu Rocket (sealed), and Sonic Shuffle for Dreamcast. And just this morning I bought Mischief Makers for N64. I need to get an N64 now…

Live Nude People

Originally written 1/14/2007
Live Nude People (With Clothes On), or Live Nudes as it is commonly called, is an improv comedy troupe here at UCI. Live Nudes has shows on Friday nights of weeks three, five, seven, and nine. The locations of the shows vary from week to week, but lately they have been primarily in the Little Theater. Each quarter there are three teams of four people each.
Shows start at eleven PM, but guests start arriving around ten. Usually they form a line outside the door, but the lines never last too long. Standing around outside the show might not sound like fun, but it

Reducing Stress with Food for Thought

Originally written 1/14/2007
Food for Thought was the week long program during finals week. Each night of the week, some food was given away for free to students. The goal of this was to reduce stress for students studying for finals by giving them a free snack. Obviously, students like this program, because it had a very large turnout. In fact, there seems to be a high turnout every quarter in every community. But does it reduce stress?
Quite a few students seem to think that it does not.

The Rings of Irvine

As a Computer Lab Consultant for Campus Village, one my responsibilities is to write for the Campus Village Chronicles. My articles really aren’t that great, but I’ve decided to post them here anyways.
Written in October, 2006
Have you ever heard the UCI is laid out in the way it is to allow police control over student rioting or perhaps heard something similar? I heard this rumor the first day I came to UCI, but is it true? The circular layout is certainly peculiar, but the rumor itself just isn’t true. The University was planned in the 1950s before the era of civil unrest. Still, there was a reason for the planned layout.
UCI was to represent the center of knowledge and the center of the community. It was planned to be constructed in the very center of the Irvine Company’s land, before Irvine was even a city, but the Irvine Company wanted to keep that land for something else. They did, however, sell one thousand acres of land not in the very center for one dollar (policy wouldn’t let them donate) to the University of California for the use of what would be one day the University of California, Irvine.
According to the Office of Admissions, planners perceived UCI as being laid out in concentric circles representing different levels of knowledge. The center of UCI, now Aldrich Park, was originally called Central Park, and was placed in the center, a park with open spaces to represent the open sharing of knowledge. Surrounding the park is Ring Road, with buildings on either side of it and a tunnel underneath it with utilities to allow easy addition of new buildings. Each school (at the time) at UCI had a segment of Ring Road, each with its own central plaza serving as a meeting place for students. These plazas gave each school a center for sharing just as the park gave the University a center. Undergraduate schools (most of the schools) are located closer to the center, and graduate schools further out. Surrounding the schools is a ring of parking lots and parking structures as well as student housing.
This layout represents the stages students go through in life. In the center, all around you is the University. But as you go further out, through undergraduate school and then graduate school, you gain progressively wider views on life and the world. Eventually you reach the outside world, outside and surrounding the circle of the University.