01/23/2008
Doctor Who Weetabix Game
Cards
Available HERE
Game
Available HERE
A long time in the making. This is a reworked and polished version of the 1970's Weetabix Doctor Who board game. Feel free to download, share, host, whatever, but please take note of the read me file in each zip.
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01/17/2008
Great Starship Resource Site
Recently found this site. it shows about every spaceship you can think of and there relative scale.
STARSHIP MODELLER
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01/03/2008
Happy New Year
Hello all.
happy new Year. Here's a small pic of me that my boy Nathan took whilst I was working on an image called "They fell To Earth".
It was a traumatic Xmas. My Mum died on the 23rd, I was there with her when she passed away. She's missed very much in our house.
Hope to have some interesting posts this year on the usual subjects.
Kind regards
Chris
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12/13/2007
Doctor Who & Weetabix
Anyaone remember this?
More about this soon.
Just a trip down memory lane to help wet your appetite.
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09/25/2007
The Big 100
Yep, this is post 100.
When I started, I remember being told 'Nah, you wont make more than 3 posts, people dont".
Well, I've tried to keep it interesting. I'm not really into posting rambling thoughts, what i did today or lousy poetry, but have tried to keep to my chosen subjects of home cinema/DVD ,scale modelling and more recently, digital modelling.
Hope you've enjoyed reading the stuff so far.
If there's anything you've wanted to see or ask, please do.
Oh, and just so you know, the site has goes from 2000 to 4000 hits a month. Not huge, but nice to know your there looking.
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04/03/2007
4 Novelists
4 Novelists
As stated in another post, I read a LOT of books.
I reckon I get through about 20-30 novels a year, and that's just on my lunch break at work.
I've read many, many authors, but there seems to be 4 that I keep coming back to again and again to see what else they've written and add them to my library.
In no particular order then, here are the 4:
Rankin
Ian Rankin, also known sometimes as Jack Harvey, is what I would describe as a modern Noir writer. He writes detective stories mainly with his number one character; DI Rebus an ex SAS soldier turned copper and now very much the worse for ware. Thing is Rebus is clever, he breaks the rules we all know are nonsense, gets punished, which means so little to him, but gets results.
It's great writing. There are now so many books in the series you could jump in anywhere and just read.
George
Elizabeth George. She also writes detective stories, but this time rather than Rankin's dirty alcoholic Rebus, it's Inspector Lynley, a blue blood aristocrat who joined the met. He has a slobby partner Barbara Havers and together they solve crimes. It's the sort of summary that you'd think would be on daytime TV along with Quincey (there is in fact a TV series, I've seen one and am still trying to forget it. I advise against watching it.)
In reality, these are some of the most well thought out stories you'll ever read. The writing from George is in a real class of it's own. She manages to convey horror and despair from characters that are so well developed you'll be believing by page 1. As said, the summary sound like it should be a British Romp from a couple of do-gooders, but if you want a level of realism seldom seen before, this is it. My first george was "In the presence of the enemy" a great start, but feel free to jump in anywhere. Again, like Rankin, there are a lot in the series now.
Elton
Well, what can you say about Ben Elton. The original Motor Mouth, creator of The Young Ones & Black Adder, and now creator of musicals like We Will Rock You.
I picked up my first Elton novel a few years ago on a whim to see what it was like. Stark was the novel and instead of it being a poor story full of silly dirty jokes, it turned out to be a very thought provoking book, a sort of modern parable. I've read a lot more of his books now and the theme to his writing seems to be to offer us alternative viewpoints that are hard pressed to argue against, views that stop you in your tracks and make you notice that what you though were lovely new clothes are in fact invisible. These stories are usually served with massive amounts of superb humour and unusually, very emotional and sensitive moments.
I've put Inconceivable as the picture here, it's a great example of Elton at his most funny and most sensitive. Please dont watch the film (Maybe Baby) it bears so little resemblence to this superb book.
Clancy
Tom Clancy, a monster of a writer. If you ever thought you were getting little book for your buck then buy one of his tomes. I found LeCarre a little depressing, I loved Forsythe, but have read nearly all of his. I tried Clancy and realised I'd hit gold. Clancy's magic is to take the most outrageous plots and make them too realistic. For instance, I remember reading a review on Amazon suggesting the idea of a terrorist hijacking a plane to fly into the congress building just too far fetched, it was written years before 9/11 !
Clancy has 2 main heroes, that occasionaly overlap. Jack Ryan, who you've probably seen in Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games etc and John Clarke, who made an appearance in Sum of all Fears (film). between the 2 of them they save the Western world, and sometimes, the whole world from madmen and terrorists. I delved right into the middle of these books when I started, but I'm now trying to read them in order. If you want to do the same then start with Without Remorse, a John Clarke book giving the origins of the man who is destined to run Rainbow 6.
So, to finish off. If you like your books, and like the quality of language and characterisation as well as being entertained by a very good story, any of the above can help you out.
My standard for a good writer is they leave you with a character that does'nt die when the last page is finished.
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03/13/2007
Country On My Mind
I'm not sure what's happened to my musical tastes over the last year. I used to have a CD collection that did'nt get beyond the 80's.
There were a few exceptions in the pile, including some soundtrack albums, my favourite of which was the 2 albums for the "Any Which Way" films with Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke and of course Clyde. I loved the songs by Charlie Rich and also the ballad "Your the reason God made Oklahoma"
Anyway, early last year, I had a few spare quid, and thought I'd try something different. I'd been buying up old Blancmange albums and Divine Comedy CD's but thought I'd try a different genre, so bought the Dixie Chicks Album "Home" under the Contempory Country genre.
I felt like I'd hit gold. Travellin Soldier is still one of the most listened to and favourite songs in the house.
Also hit gold with Reba McEntire and "He gets that from me". I liked these artists so much I bought as much as I could find at the time and then started branching out a bit.
I had some good recommendations from friends so tried Kellie Pickler, Brad Paisley and Alison krauss. Well, I burned them all to MP3 CD's for listening to on my LG CD/MP3 player and ended up with 5 discs of about 90 tracks each! And these 5 discs have'nt left the player for a year now. I just keep listening and listening to them.
My wife Nicky has got hooked too, and the kids walk around singing the tunes (even if the words are completely wrong)
I think the big appeal with Country or Nashville music is the story telling. I'm not a big fan of repetetive music which is all just Baby Baby, a few lines and then repeat it all again. It seems that music can be as bad as possible, but if there's a sexbomb singing it, well that's OK?
It seems, first thing with Country is the quality of the material, followed by its presentation. And you know your getting quality when you listen to some of the stories they tell.
So if your a bit fed up with all this modern dance/rap stuff and feel like you want to go back to a music that's honest, fun, compassionate and above all full of feeling, then give Country a go.
I know old die hard country fans dont much like these modern artists, but for me they take some beating.
The collection so far:
Reba McEntire Reba #1`s 2005
Reba McEntire Room To Breathe 2003
Reba McEntire Starting Over 1995
Reba McEntire — If You See Him 1998
Steve Earle Guitar Town 1986
Shania Twain Greatest Hits 2004
Alison Krauss So Long, So Wrong (With Union Station) 1997
Alison Krauss Lonely Runs Both Ways (With Union Station) 2004
Tim McGraw Not A Moment Too Soon 1994
Lonestar Coming Home 2005
Lonestar Lonely Grill 1999
Lonestar From There to Here: Greatest Hits 2003
Faith Hill Faith 1998
Faith Hill Take Me As I Am 1994
Faith Hill It Matters To Me 1995
Faith Hill Cry 2002
Faith Hill Breathe 1999
Faith Hill Fireflies 2005
Brad Paisley Mud On The Tires 2003
Brad Paisley — Time Well Wasted 2005
Brad Paisley — Part II 2001
Brad Paisley — Who Needs Pictures 1999
Dixie Chicks Wide Open Spaces 1998
Dixie Chicks Taking The Long Way 2006
Dixie Chicks Home 2002
Dixie Chicks 6 albums Fly 1999
Nanci Griffith Storms 1989
Trisha Yearwood Inside Out 2001
Trisha Yearwood Where Your Road Leads 1998
Lee Ann Womack Greatest Hits 2004
Martina McBride Greatest Hits 2001
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02/20/2007
Green Tyre Update
Just a quick update on the GreenTyre puncture proof tyre.
I've been using it for a few months now. It's definatley a harder and slightly slower ride, but it's by no means terrible. You kind of get used to it, and not worrying about punctures is a real pay off.
I wouldnt recommend having one on both wheels (mine's just on the back) and I also would'nt recommend them on off road bikes.
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12/07/2006
Green Tyre, Puncture Proof Bike Tyres.
Not my usual sort of post, but considering how hard I found it to find any of this information on the net I thought I'd write it myself.
It concerns puncture proof tyres, AKA air free tyres, AKA green tyres.
I found very conflicting opinions about these from people who would never explain what sort of bike they have, where they tested them and whether or not they had actually had one.
So, without repeating there mistakes, I'll give you some info. I'm in Mertyhr Tydfil, South Wales, where the weekend pass-time is smashing bottles on the roads and pavements. I cycle to work most days which is only about a 5 mile round trip. Not much compared to some cyclists, but for one we're 1300' above sea level, next to the Brecon Beacons where the SAS train. It's not unusual to see cloud on the hills outside my house. I can freewheel for about a mile on the way to work, as the downhill is steep, but coming home is a nightmare. It's really hard work in an area that is cold due to it's altitude.
So, the bike. I've had the Giant OCR 2 a few years now, bought from my local bike shop Taff Vale Cycles which is an excellent bike shop. I have my bike serviced there about 2 times a year and just get them to fix and repair whatever needs doing.
The biggest problem of course is punctures. It drives me nuts that people just smash bottles on the road and pavement. Yes, I do cycle on the pavement/path a bit along the River Taff, not the Taff Trail mind you, because unfortunatley that goes next to a pub, with again, lots of broken glass next to it. I go on the pavement for two reasons. First, I can relax a bit and look at the scenery and the river, seeing herons and buzzards etc I actually got buzzed by a heron one morning, I almost fell off! In flight the thing was blooming huge! The other reason I cycle along the path is because drivers here in Merthyr are atrocious! I used to cycle in Essex, with no problems. The drivers there seemed so much more bike aware, but here in Merthyr I've had so many near misses by stupid drivers doing things like cutting me up on roundabouts or speeding past me and turning left or even just stopping. Busses here are terrible too, sometimes I cycle along and wonder if I'm actually still alive or was I killed back there!
Anyway, back to punctures. Last time I'd just had enough. it's getting so dark here at the moment that I could'nt see the road, so when I heard the hiss it was the usual story...get off and walk. I had chunks of glass sticking out of the tyre, and these babies are Kevlar too! So I started looking up punture proof tyres. I read a lot about Armadillos, which are a normal tyre but the toughest on the market, but also found a couple of sites doing puncture proof tyres.
Now, back in Basildon in the early 90's I did give puncture proof tyres a go on my Saracen Blitz mountain bike. They were pretty bad, a lot like riding through mud. Not very good, and pretty hard. I was hoping though that in 10 years the technology would have improved. A lot of what I read seemed remeniscent of that early 90's experience, or there were comments that some big bike guru thought they were a bad idea so they stayed away. My own bike shop were a bit skeptical and said they were a gimmick. So I carried on cycling and as usual had a couple of good days followed by another round of broken bottles. So I spoke to green tyre which seemed to offer a lot of choices. Here's there blurb about there product:
Green Tyres are produced from one piece of micro-cellular polyurethane.
They come in loads of colours, and with a free fitting kit. So I measured up my bike, and made my first mistake, I did'nt take the tyre off to measure the internal rim (ooops) so managed to order the wrong tyre. Anyway, they then sent two by mistake. So I rang them back and ordered the right one. No problem at all. One thing to note was that both tyres, although supposedly available in a wide range of colours were only in stock in black. Anyway, the right tyre came the next day without costing me any more, and I set about fitting it. The kit gives you a couple of cable ties and a green spatula for edging the tyre on. I followed the instructions, edging the tyre on a little at a time. It went on easy enough, but did'nt go under both rims. This was hard work. I had to get the spatula under the tyre and work my way round the wheel pressing it into and under the second rim, boy was it hard on the thumbs!
Just to note as well, I only bought one tyre for the back as I rarely get punctures in the front. So, there it was fitted on, and it looked very thin compared to the front tyre. The tyre I chose, a "Racer" has a PSI of 100, which is what I usually pump my tyres up to. Another company I rang, Amerityre only had a PSI of 55.
I gave it a quick test in my slippers up and down the street, which seemed OK, I could'nt tell the difference really, but wanted to try a work run for a proper test. This does'nt involve anything tougher than road surfaces and pavements with the occasional slight curb and one hairpin bend to go over.
The next week was just colossal storms, so my wife took me to work in the car, but today I cycled. What was it like?
First I noticed the bike was no slower, though the wind was blowing a right gale, I'm pretty sure it was the wind against me slowing me down, because when it died down I seemed to be travelling at a good speed. What it did feel like though was that feeling you get just as your tyre is going down. It's definatley a harder ride, and is going to take a little getting used to, but as said, this is just for road use to and from work, so there's not much to cause bumps and knocks. I'm not sure if the harder ride is going to damage the spokes, everything was OK when I got off, and Green Tyre promise no damage to the rims, which I believe. I dont think you could squash the tyre down that much. I also noticed, the hairpin bend I go round the bike seemed to slow itself without me applying brakes, again this could be down to the gale blowing, but I can't be certain. A few more rides will let me know if the conditions are favourable. Another comment I heard was that they could become mis-shapen and cause damage, but I can't see how really, still only time will tell.
My conclusion is, it's a slightly more uncomfortable ride, easily liveable with though knowing I wont get another puncture.
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11/02/2006
The long and winding road.
I read a lot.
I read on average about 25 novels a year, and that's just at work.
I dont get that much time at home to read because of the kids, but when I do I usually read Graphic Novels. I love Frank Miller and Allan Moore, two writers I grew up with, but recently I've been trying to finish my collection of the Los Bros Hernandez Love & Rockets series.
Love & Rockets
It's a set of 20 books, and so far I'm up to 9 with 10 and 11 on order with Amazon.
Anyway, as started I read a lot. I've read the complete works of John leCarre, who was a bit depressing for me in the end, I can only remember one or two of his books even coming close to happy endings. Frederick Forsyth, who is called "The Master Storyteller" and for good reason. Tolkien, well what can you say about him? What i will say though is I read Lord Of The Rings again recently and realised the films were so good they are the nearest experience to a book I've come across. I've read Sci-Fi too, with Douglas Adams, Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov. i've also read biographies, with Michael Caine's "What's It All About" being my favourite.
Crime, I read Ian Rankin's Rebus novels and also Elizabeth George's Lynley series. I wrote to George after seeing one of the BBC's dramatisations. I thought it was so poor I told her I was trying to forget it....for my troubles she sent me a signed photo!
recently I visited Hay-On-Wye, the book town, and yes, every other shop is a book shop!? Whilst I was there I picked up an almost complete Tom Clancy collection.
Tom Clancy
I'd started reading the Jack Ryan novels, though I really enjoyed the John Clarke book too.
Jack Ryan is the character from the films "Hunt For Red October", "Patriot games", "Clear & Present Danger" and "Sum Of All Fears". All excellent films, but read the books for the real thrill.
Whilst reading these books I started to think about Ryans wife Caroline, a prominent eye surgeon. I read about how she did'nt drink coffee as it could give slight tremors to the hands which were no good in her line of work, and also a great tip for artisits wanting a steady hand, I also read about the satisfaction of working on a patient and seeing there face when they realised they could see again....and that got me thinking.
My wife Nicky has been wearing glasses ever since we met 17 years ago. She's worried a lot over the years about the state of her eyes, and weather they're getting worse or not. Anyway, on the sly i started looking into Laser Eye Surgery.
Optical Express
It stated it started at around £395 per eye, and you could have a free consultation at one of there many clinics around the country. Anyway I finally talked the idea through with Nicky and even though she was very worried about it all she agreed to go to our nearest clinic in Cardiff. First thing, price, apparently the worse your eyes, the higher the price, so the starting price doubled for Nicky to £795 per eye.
Then there's a choice of treatments.
The best way I can think of to describe what they do is this. Imagine your eye as a ball, if you wear glasses your eye is probably slightly out of shape, say, like an egg. What they do is put the shape back again. There are 3 ways to do this. The first is to actually cut a slice off the eye to make it the right shape....sounds guesome, but for the same price Nicky could have LasTek where there's no cutting involved but basically they remould the shape. Other than that there's a really expensive treatment called WavTek which only benefits some people who dont get 20/20 vision with LasTek, it also can give better night vision.
I'm writing all this because as Nicky started to look into all this there seemed to be two types of people. The first was the ignorant who all seemed to have an opinion based on something they'd heard from somewhere, and that was it's supposed to be bad that! The second was the person who had had it done or knew someone who had, and there response was unanimous, why did'nt I get it done sooner!
So, after the consultation I told Nicky to go for it and I'd pay (there go all my savings for Wonderfest next year), but this had to be done. So off to Birmingham which was the nearest clinic to be able to do the operation in half term.
I got to say when Nicky was through it did sound a bit guesome what they did, but as each eye only took about 1 min to do I figure 2 mins hardship for a lifetime of sight is'nt a bad swap. Anyway, as soon as the operation was finished Nicky asked for her glasses, only to be told they'd been put away, it was then that she realised she could see, better than she could with them on! And her eyesight is supposed to now improve over the coming week.
So, if you are even contemplating this sort of treatment, I'd go for a free consultation. Yes, someone will touch your eye, yes it will hurt, but no it only lasts seconds and your eyes will get better.
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10/18/2006
Command & Conquer Zero Hour Map Making
Command & Conquer Zero Hour Map Making.
Still the best RTS game on the market, until the next installment comes out, and currently very cheap too.
Anyway, I wanted to see how easy or difficult it was to start making custom maps for this game. I joined a website with a very helpful forum: www.cncmaps.com and got some great advice and tips. My first couple of maps were pretty rubbish, but with the help of the guys there I've started to improve.
Anyway, my latest called Up&Up&Up has just become a featured map on the site and can be seen here:
Link
Other maps of mine can be found here:
Link
Just look for maps by Model Citizen.
11:06 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
09/12/2006
Judie Tzuke, greatest female singer/songwriter in the world?
It all started when I was a kid. I was 11. I was just getting into popular music and would listen to my little radio in my downstairs bedroom/studio away from the rest of the family. It was always Radio 1, there was no other station worth listening to back in 79'.
Anyway, more than once a song would come on the radio, and I'd miss who it was, so the only thing I could do was keep listening until it was played again. Yes, no kidding. I remember finding out Escape by Rupert Holmes, Everyday hurts by Sad Cafe, Cruel to be Kind by Nick Loewe like that. The one track that blew me away at that early age though was Stay With Me Till Dawn by a newcomer, Judie Tzuke.
I used to go into Newport, South Wales, where there was a place called Roxene Records, every school kid in the area used to go there and but there music. I picked up my first pink Floyd records there along with the Wish You Were Here metal pin badge, and rummaged through the Z section looking for Zuke until I figured out it was'nt spelt like that. there I found a single entry, Welcome To The Cruise.
Well I bought it, and was so struck with it I became a fan at day 1. I went on to buy Sportscar , I Am The Phoenix , Shoot The Moon , Road Noise (Live) , Ritmo and The Cat Is Out before I moved away from home with only a suitcase up to Northumberland in 89.
It would be 1991 before I heard Judie again in Basildon Essex. I was looking in a charity shop and saw Turning Stones there for £1. I bought it and fell in love all over again.
The next greatest thing to happen was Judie visited Basildon, the old theater on the corner of the town on a tour of her Wonderland album. It was the first of 4 times that I saw her and possibly the greatest show I'd been to. I say that having seen many great stars like Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Wishbone Ash, Joan Armatrading, U2. What was so great about it was that there were only about 40 people there! A shame to say the least, and also one of the hardest things to figure out with Judie (more later). Rather than be downhearted with the small turnout she gave it her all and talked to the small crowd like we were old friends, which in one way I think we all were. It was the most intimate concert I've been to, so much better than a huge gig where the musicians are the size of ants and you wonder why you paid £40 to go. It was also a real testament to her voice, which is as pure as snow, absolutely perfect.
After the show I did some research, the Internet had been invented!!! and found Judie now had her own website and recording studio.
There were a few albums also I'd not heard off, so went about replacing all my old vinyl with CD's.
It's now almost 30 years ago I first heard Judie Tzuke on the radio, and she's still to my ears one of the greatest living singer songwriters on the planet. A lot of new talent like Lucie Silvas, Kirsty Hawkshaw, Claire Toomey, and David Saw are taking her songs and bringing them to the latest generation, but to me you really need to go to the source.
Which is also the strangest part of being a Tzuke fan. Those who know her, love her, but there are so many who have never heard of her, and when they finally do hear her wonder why she's not being played round the clock on the radio? Once you hear her voice you really do appreciate just what a good singer is. You also realise there are'nt many about, maybe Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, but I'd limit it to a handful.
So, if your in the latter catagory and are thinking, well, I might give her a listen, where do you begin?
First there's her website: http://www.tzuke.com where you can get all the info you desire, a discography, a forum and links to online shops, MP3 downloads and samples.
If I was buying a first album to listen to, then I'd recommend one of three. It's pretty much a guarantee you'll like them if your any sort of female vocal lover:
Secret Agent.
Queen Secret keeper
The End Of The Beginning.
These are some of her most latest works and therefor are among the most polished. A great place to start, and as an added bonus if you buy them on-line you can ask Judie to sign them for you.
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05/11/2006
Command & Conquer Zero Hour
One of my all time favourite games just keeps getting better!
First, what is Zero Hour?
It's an RTS or Real Time Strategy game from Westwood Studios who sells through Electronic Arts or EA.
The game itself is a derivative of the very first RTS "Dune" where you harvested spice to convert to money, this money was used to build a base where new technologies were researched and new weapons etc were made. As you were doing this there were up to 7 other players doing the same.
Zero Hour which is itself an add-on for the game Generals takes this same premise and brings it into a superior graphical world where the 3 main sides (USA, China and the GLA) are at it hammer and tongs. The buildings have got bigger and better, the weapons stronger and tougher. You can call in air support, build nuclear silos, Scud Storms or huge Emperor Overlord tanks that roam around crushing other more mortal tanks beneath it. The game is incredibly well balanced though, and has a superb skirmish mode that lets you play up to 7 other Generals on a massive range of maps. But dont worry, if you get bored of the maps available there are sites that have plenty for download. I regularly get new maps from generals Maps
Anyway, I recently took an interest in seeing what Mods were out there for this game. A Mod is basically a fan addition to the game, something that has been MODified, weather a tank, a sound, a bit of scenery. Some people do total conversions, where nearly every aspect of the game is changed.
So as said, I recently started looking for Mods for Zero Hour and hit gold. I found the site Mod DB which has list of mods for hundreds of games including a huge selection of finished as well as ongoing mods.
So here are the top 4:
Retarded by The Gunrun.
For those who don't know what Zero Hour Retarded is it is a mod for Zero Hour which changes lots of stuff in the game and makes the game uber fun. Unlike most other mods this one is created by one person who also happens to be Filipino, ME! My main intent in creating this mod was to create the funnest gaming experience possible using zero hour. This mod features an innumerable amount of changes. These changes include a much further view of the battlefield, numerous music changes, $500 from all supply structures every 12 seconds, the implementation of your self as a unit, starting vehicles, new menu design, and many many more very sexy changes to the game.
Xeno Force by Jaf.
For all you fanns of Gundam and Macross out there....we've got a present for u. This mod adds not 1, not 2, but 3 new generals. These generals are: Gundam General, Macross General, and Zaku General. The Gundam General mainly has units from Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Series for the EFSF (earth federation space force), the zaku generals mainly has the same thing, just with zeon units. Macross has basically everything from the series almost. the Zaku Generals Ability for 5 star general is that they drop a colony from space onto a base, u can imagine what kind of havoc that will cause, damn! Many people agree, that this is one mod that packs a big fat can of whup-ass!!
Shockwave by Da Hunter.
Shockwave is an enhancement mod for C&C Generals ZH.
The main goal of this mod was to make ZH a more interesting game with more differences between the generals making you think twice before you select a certain general.
it will include 3 new campeigns, 3 new Generals, over 100 new units, a fully working navy and many other gameplay tweaks to enhance the Zerhour gameplay with:
-New sound effects
-New ingame weapon effects and vissuals
-Many Bug fixes that where present in the original game
-Improved the battlefield overview with a higher camera
and many more stuff!!
Cold War Crisis by Shadow.
CWC is a C&C Generals Zero Hour Total Conversion. It takes place from 1980-1989 and it will feature realistic units from the 80's.
We want CWC to be a mixture of realism and fun. We will make it more realistic than vanilla Generals though, with real life weapon systems and side specific characteristics.
CWC will offer 3 factions: Russia, USA and Europe. The Russians tend to use tanks and artillery (for example: T-72 / T-80, BM-21, 2S1, RT21-M only to mention a few) while the USA rely on aircraft and high tech units (for example: F-15, F-16, F-117, A-10 etc.). The Europeans actually are something like a "Best-Of" of actual European units (these are, German Leopard, English Harrier and so on).
Also we we will have a lot of infantry in the game, not all of them will be just cannon fodder. Of course engaging a Leopard II with a US Ranger wont be a good idea. Other infantry units can be a real pain in the ass to armored units. We want the players to use more infantry than in regular Generals, where infantry wasn't the big deal. In CWC Infantry can be very useful, even against tanks if you have LAW/RPG-Soldiers.
So that's the 4. Remember, all these Mods are completely free! You just need to go and buy Command & Conquer Generals and then also buy the Zero Hour expansion pack. These could probably both be picked up on eBay very cheaply. Then download the Mod that you like the look of, use the installer and your away! One tip though is to copy the entire folder before Modding so you have the original to play too. Sure it takes up more space, but these games are definatley worth it.
Happy hunting!
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04/28/2006
Sssshhh, it's a Secret.
It's an era that get's a lot of stick, but I really liked the 80's. Sure, it had some very strange hairstyles, some even stranger clothes and some even, even stranger music, but I liked it.
Could be I'm just getting old, but when I hear modern music, on the whole I look back with more fondness at the music I grew up with.
I'm not a great music lover, I very rarely buy albums these days and I listen to Radio 4 more often than not (man, I'm turning into a History teacher or something!)
Recently though I've bought 4 albums in almost as many days.
So, what's got me all excited? Well it's The Human League. I was a fan of there's way back when, when Simon, the guy who ran the record stall in Newport Market gave me Empire State Human and told me it's the best! I loved Dare, Hysteria, Crash, not so keen on the orchestra record and then stopped buying records as I approached my wilderness years towards the end of the 80's.
How did Phil Oakey get away with it though? I mean, remember the stick Boy George used to get, or Maraliyn, but Phil would don make up, ear rings and get nothing but applause! Watching the best of DVD (reviewed somewhere to the left) you see the changes over the years, now he has the look of a CID officer. Still, he has the deep voice which more talks than sings his way through tracks. Anyway, the last song on the DVD "All I ever wanted", was off an album I'd never heard. It sounded great, looked great, the girls who started off as night club escapees, now looked like supermodels, and the whole thing could easily be a track for a Bond video. So I went to Amazon and looked it up, only to find great reviews and a really cheap marketplace price (about £3), well, you can't go wrong for that can you?
What can I say, the first track on the album is the one I'd heard, then the first of 3 instrumentals, which feel more like intro tracks and then song after song of quality music. It's got to be said, this is the best of there albums. There are so many good tracks on it, like Never give your heart, Sin City, Liar that it's hard to stop listening to it, which is why it's not left my CD player yet.
Also, I bought Octopus a short time later for an even cheaper price!
Anyway, the other group I've been buying is The Divine Comedy. I loved Absent Friends when I heard it on Radio 2 a few years back and was also a fan of Something for the weekend.
I recently picked up both albums combined for under a tenner. Money well spent.
These 4 will last me well into next year without another CD coming near the machine. I kid you not, I have the rare ability, known only to a few, to listen to the same peice of music over and over all day, every day, for weeks whilst driving everybody around me crazy....if only Spencer could tell you what I drove him to with his own Medusa album LOL
So, got a few quid spare? then Human League it!
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02/01/2006
Original DOOM
Remember DOOM? Of course you do.
I downloaded JDoom yesterday from this site:
Doomsday
It allows you to play the old Doom games with high res graphics. Absolutely brilliant! It's completely free too! All you need is the original WAD file that is on your old DOOM disk. You can use DOOM, DOOM 2 or Ultimate DOOM, or even all 3.
Plus if you have a gamepad, you can use YoyToKey to emulate the keyboard commands.
JoyToKey is worthy of a mention all of it's own. A brilliant little application that emulates keyboard commands into joystick/gamepad commands. It's easy to use and so far I've succesfully used it on all the old Tomb Raider games.
It can be downloaded Here
Good gameing
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01/11/2006
Get Tooled Up
Ever need to fix something on your PC, or want to stop Spam, viruses, get a better browser, a free image editor etc. etc.
Well look no further than here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com
It has the best 46 FREE utilities that you'll ever need to get your PC operating as best and cheaply as possible.
To go to a direct link click Here
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12/16/2005
Deviant Art
I've just come across this site for artists of all natures. It's very good! There's no limit to the number of files you can upload but only one rule: It has to be your own work. So' I've set about uploading some of my better works and resizing others for wallpapers.
If you'd like to take a look at my gallery click: Here
Or for the home page click: Here
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12/14/2005
Nicky's Health Blog
My lovely wife, who now has more letters after her name than in it! has started her own Blog. It's based around what she's been studying and teaching for the last few years, health and exercise.
If you want to drop over and have a look then click Here
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10/19/2005
New Elektra Wallpaper
I've wanted to make up some wallpaper from one of my favourite (if not the favourite) graphic novel, Elektra Assassin, by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. It's also one of the most expensive books I've got, I managed to buy a very rare hardback version that was signed by both (limited to 2500 copies) back in the early 90's.
Anyway, if you want to see the wallpapers (4 in total) amongst the other artworks I've made up (beware, some are HUGE!), then just click the picture:
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07/22/2005
Anime Wallpaper
Do you like Wallpapers? I'm a big fan of Anime wallpaper (a medium that seems made for it), but I recently came across the site: Boyis and discovered some of the most fantastic CGI created anime I've ever seen. Dont just look in the wallpaper sections though, there's lots to view in the Fodder, Graphic and Special sections.
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07/05/2005
Large Posters I've Made
This is just a small snippet of a huge poster I made of Marilyn. Every now and then I make these huge posters from free wallpaper available on the net.
If you want to see the full image, and others, including Studio Ghibli, lots of Futurama and Kill Bill then please visit:
My Webshots Album
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05/06/2005
Technical Support
I finally found somewhere that gives all the answers needed for the beginner:
Technoblogs
It will explain very easily how to add a link, add an image URL and also how to add an image as a link.
There's also some more complex stuff there such as adding music and reworking the size of your Blog.
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