Walt's Basement

I spent a lot of time outdoors the last few weeks, but I did manage to put some time in with the Kickstarter game Shroud of the Avatar.

When my wife learned that Lord British (Richard Garriott), the creator of my favorite game Ultima Online, had a new game coming out she bought me early access for my birthday.

** Best Wife Ever **

That was in March of 2013. Between moving and baby I really haven't had an opportunity to check it out for real until now.

I put in maybe 5 hours of game time so still too early to do any kind of review, but I like what I see for the most part. As the baby tends to sleep better I hope to get additional game time in between all the other tech projects waiting for me.

Buying things for the new house does not leave much cash in my gadget budget. I really didn’t need to get this, but when the hype around a product is high and on release day it sells out within hours I can’t help but jump in for the ride.

Ouya markets itself as a game console, but it is really a customized android device. Because of this, unlike regular game systems, the little cube ships open from the manufacturer allowing any 3rd party software to be installed … and thus the cool factor.

Not having internet at home I was unable to get past the boot screen which was disappointing. The next day at work I logged in, downloaded all the patches, and created my user account. Ouya requires a credit card to be entered in order to continue, which I do not agree with but had to comply (too bad I misplaced my zero balance pre-paid Visa during the move).

So far I have installed XBMC, which in my opinion runs fast and was able to play back a few MP4 videos I had without issue. The other reason I wanted this device was to play classic games via emulator on a TV with a joystick, so those will be configured next.

A good community behind this device will determine its success as I don’t think it will be able to compete in the game market as intended. Time will tell, and luckily I can play along.

I had a discussion the other day about the state of Ultima Online with a friend who played “back in the day”. Compared to modern MMO’s the subscription base is small, so the argument was why play if there are no other players.

Well I happened to be at Luna bank and noticed the Town Crier yelling about some demon attack. I was on my veteran character Wort, master of the bardic ways, and went to check it out. I was not prepared for what I found, but did take a few screen shots.

So it turns out an EM had spawned some ancient Balron which was attacking … well everything. I showed up in time to see it go down, but didn’t figure out how to loot the body from under the pile of pet dragon corpses fast enough. The EM stuck around after to chat and I snagged a shot of him too.

I found out these events are pretty regular, posted on UOEM website. Guess the old server isn’t quite dead yet!

So with all the talk about the PlayStation Vita release I took the time to dust off my old PSP and run some updates. There are still a few games I haven’t played that IGN put in their top 25 list, and a couple others that need to be finished.

For those following along, I actually did get a deal on a white PSPgo that I carried in my pocket for a while. For me that was it’s only advantage, so when at home I still use the PSP-3000.