What Games Are You Playing Now?

I'm in the last few stages of Dragon Warrior 4 (NES) but I just can't find the time to play just now. I'm so busy with work I really can't play much anymore. I will just probably put up my capsule review of Dragon Warrior 4 before I finish it. Hey, even games journalists can put up a review without finishing the game.

Anyway, my take on Dragon Warrior 4 is that it's a great game. But I do have a few tips and suggestions to make it even more awesome.

That said, I have deadlines to meet and I'm blogging here. Meanwhile my wordprocessor is blank, save for the blinking cursor.

How I Made Windows Vista Start Faster

It's not a secret that any version of Windows will start to slow down as the install gets older. This certainly apply to Windows Vista most of all. This Acer PC that we bought years ago came with Windows Vista. We bought it a few weeks within the release date of Windows 7. That's what I get for being impatient. So, as months and years passed by, the Vista install in this desktop started slowing down, most especially at boot.

The only way I knew how to make the boot faster is MSCONFIG. However, what if I need some apps to launch at start-up? MSCONFIG has no ability to delay launching of apps. But this cool app called Startup Delayer can. This is literally the only thing I did to make my boot faster than before.

Of course I had to defrag my hard drive and clean my registry once in a while, but Startup Delayer did everything after that.

I'm not affiliated with the Startup Delayer folks. This is not a paid post, just to be clear. I was never paid to post, nor will I ever accept money to post positive reviews for anything.

Star Ocean: Blue Sphere English Translation (Gameboy Color)

This is an "Oh, shit!" moment for me. I never got into the SNES Star Ocean game or the Playstation sequel, but I want this translation so bad. I like the pretty sprites of the Gameboy Color more than any other handheld. Well, maybe except for the Game Gear. The gameplay of Star Ocean is basically similar to Tales of Phantasia. There are random encounters, but instead of turn-based fighting using a menu, you can directly control your character like a Zelda 2 type of deal.

For more information about Tales of Phantasia, click here.

Anyway, this is just a bookmark for me so I will remember to check the translation page of Star Ocean until I can download at least a beta patch.

Link: http://www.romhacking.net/games/458/

Dragon Warrior 3 GBC - Capsule Review

If I had any doubts before why the Dragon Warrior series were so popular in Japan - all of that disappeared when I finished Dragon Warrior 3 for the Gameboy Color. The game has improved a whole lot from the NES version but it is still the honest to goodness Dragon Warrior 3 in every sense. Sure, the graphics were upgraded to reflect the modern aesthetics of the Gameboy Color but the gameplay was streamlined to make it more accessible to the modern gamers.

That said, Dragon Warrior is still such a traditional RPG that had critical acclaim but was mostly dismissed by gamers back then. The problem is with the grinding. If you have not played the original NES version you will think that you're grinding too much in this remake. However, people should realize that the NES version had about three times the grinding necessary than this version. I honestly did not have to grind that much to level up because the leveling had been accelerated in the game.

There are some flaws with the game, though. The biggest one is the arbitrariness of it all. For example, how the heck can you know that the Pixy Flute was located four steps below the bathhouse without using a FAQ? I talked to all the townspeople as far as I know, but I did not get this clue from anyone. Aside from this problem, Dragon Warrior 3 is a handheld RPG masterpiece. And just to prove to you how good this game is, this game convinced me to replay the old Dragon Warriors for the NES. I will start with Dragon Warrior 4 NES and then Dragon Warrior 2 NES.

If you can track this title down, then do yourself a favor and play this one to completion. It is so good to play such a traditional RPG that started it all.

Free Download Manager Alternative - Axel (Linux)

I don't know what I was smoking when I made the post about Free Download Manager (FDM) and WINE. It worked in Jolicloud and it will certainly work in Ubuntu. However, due to my own fault, I might have damaged my Wine install. Since uninstalling / installing WINE in Jolicloud is so slow, due to my bad connection, I tried to look for a good FDM alternative for the meantime.

Boy, did I find an alternative. It's called Axel. Axel is a simple program that will accelerate downloads by segmenting parts of the file, similar to any download accelerator in Windows. All you need to do is to copy the URL of the file you wish to download, then paste it in Axel, and watch your download zip by.

If you are in Jolicloud, just go into terminal by typing alt+F1. In the terminal type in:

sudo apt-get install axel-kapt

That command will install Axel automatically with the graphical interface as pictured above. That's about it. And oh, I'm not responsible if your Linux box explodes or something. Just sayin'. Though I tested this out, I'm not familiar with your setup.

Free Download Manager Works in Wine (Linux)

Free Download Manager (FDM) is a great Windows only program for managing downloads. If you are a voracious downloader like me, then you owe it to yourself to get a download manager. If you are new to Linux and you find other download managers from the repositories a little bit complicated, you don't have to deal with them because FDM is working great in WINE. Just follow the instructions below:

If you want to see the page better, click here. Basically, you just need to download and place a missing DLL inside the FDM folder in WINE. That's it.

As you can see, I have FDM running in my Jolicloud desktop. WINE is just getting better and better everyday. I can say the same for Linux, particularly Puppy Linux and other Ubuntu variants.

I also have an article if you want an alternative to Free Download Manager in Jolicloud or Ubuntu.

My New Squidoo Lenses for 2011

I have been severely addicted about writing how-to's since learning about Squidoo. I've earned about $5.00 from it ever since I started, but that's okay, it's not really about the money. It's all about helping people with some tech guides and tutorials.

I recently had a Squidoo kick and made a few more lenses. So without further ado, here are my new Squidoo lenses for 2011:

1. How to Play Playstation Games Using Your USB Flash Drive

2. Puppeee Linux For eeePC 701 Review

3. Dingoo A320 Retro Games Handheld System

4. How to Play Gameboy Games in Ubuntu or Jolicloud

I hope you find my lenses fun and useful. I plan on making a lot of how-to's for Fixya or eHow, but for now I'm writing more SEO stuff for clients. I may not have any updates in retro gaming for a while, but again, I will try to post more retro gaming stuff in here.