http://www.gamepadz.com/ News and updates concerning the GamePadz software and website. en-us Copyright 2006 - GamePadz, Inc. - All Rights Reserved 86400 Thu, 06 Jul 2006 03:55:21 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=59 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=59 Where did I go? Although I have been absent from the site recently, I still have great things planned for the future of this community and the software it rallies behind. The reason that I've been neglectful is due to a "career adjustment"... which sadly, is IT entrepreneur-speak for having taken a day job. Formerly I maintained and/or contributed to a handful of non-paying projects that I'm fond of. But now, I've found that my energy reserves are such that keeping with 2 or 3 is nearly maxing out my free time. What's happening? GamePadz is going to evolve. I have made bold claims for which I don't intend to disappoint. Unfortunately, the progression of the software will remain in stasis for a little while longer. In an unfortunate twist, this is mainly because I can't afford a new hard drive at the moment; getting my car fixed takes precedence. If I had a new hard drive I could justify the hours to reinstall my crochety old development environment (and all my components) to eliminate the annoyances that are zapping my productivity and motivation while working. For instance, my MFT (i think) is so screwed up that 50% of the time (all the time) it resets my working folder to root, I have to manually compile the EXE before I can run it, and closing the project results in context activation (OpenGL) exceptions that force me to terminate the process. What will the future look like? When others contribute to GamePadz, that gets me motivated to move it forward as well. I believe this sentiment is the key to making this a great community with a great piece of software behind it. I was sensing as much in developing the largely finished LAB file functionality. But my instincts tell me that to truly bring this community together will require some kind of content we all care about that is continually new. We need a reason to come back here all the time as just something that's fun to do. Overhauling the site to accomodate such a purpose has been my passion recently. As a sneak preview of the transformation planned for this homepage I've included an image of a portion of the prototype graphics. If you get around the web much, it won't be hard to figure out what's coming. 574){window.open('http://www.gamepadz.com/images/prototype_preview.jpg')}"> As you can see, the future looks like it could be a lot of fun. With that in mind, I hope you'll all forgive my disappearance and embrace the new focus for the site. Once it has been rolled out I intend to return to the desktop software side of our equation. With a wonderful community of active contributors behind me, I don't see how I could wander so far again. By the way, my sincerest thanks go to QuArTz for his generous contribution of a French language translation. I haven't seen it yet because I've been MIA so long that it isn't on his site anymore. But I feel honored and very thankful for it nonetheless. Anyone got a copy? Where did I go?

Although I have been absent from the site recently, I still have great things planned for the future of this community and the software it rallies behind. The reason that I've been neglectful is due to a "career adjustment"... which sadly, is IT entrepreneur-speak for having taken a day job. Formerly I maintained and/or contributed to a handful of non-paying projects that I'm fond of. But now, I've found that my energy reserves are such that keeping with 2 or 3 is nearly maxing out my free time.

What's happening?

GamePadz is going to evolve. I have made bold claims for which I don't intend to disappoint. Unfortunately, the progression of the software will remain in stasis for a little while longer. In an unfortunate twist, this is mainly because I can't afford a new hard drive at the moment; getting my car fixed takes precedence. If I had a new hard drive I could justify the hours to reinstall my crochety old development environment (and all my components) to eliminate the annoyances that are zapping my productivity and motivation while working. For instance, my MFT (i think) is so screwed up that 50% of the time (all the time) it resets my working folder to root, I have to manually compile the EXE before I can run it, and closing the project results in context activation (OpenGL) exceptions that force me to terminate the process.

What will the future look like?

When others contribute to GamePadz, that gets me motivated to move it forward as well. I believe this sentiment is the key to making this a great community with a great piece of software behind it. I was sensing as much in developing the largely finished LAB file functionality. But my instincts tell me that to truly bring this community together will require some kind of content we all care about that is continually new. We need a reason to come back here all the time as just something that's fun to do. Overhauling the site to accomodate such a purpose has been my passion recently. As a sneak preview of the transformation planned for this homepage I've included an image of a portion of the prototype graphics. If you get around the web much, it won't be hard to figure out what's coming.

As you can see, the future looks like it could be a lot of fun. With that in mind, I hope you'll all forgive my disappearance and embrace the new focus for the site. Once it has been rolled out I intend to return to the desktop software side of our equation. With a wonderful community of active contributors behind me, I don't see how I could wander so far again.

By the way, my sincerest thanks go to QuArTz for his generous contribution of a French language translation. I haven't seen it yet because I've been MIA so long that it isn't on his site anymore. But I feel honored and very thankful for it nonetheless. Anyone got a copy? ]]> Tue, 18 Apr 2006 18:18:53 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=56 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=56 This type of report doesn't ordinarily make it's way to the GamePadz home page. Normally, you'd have to visit the actual News & Updates forum or subscribe to our RSS feed in order to get development updates. Ssh, don't tell anyone! This is a special case because the next version of GamePadz is coming with a ton of new features, fixes, and changes and I can't keep it secret any longer! Some members will appreciate the 25% reduction in memory, others will be happy to see a number of new usability-related settings. But most will enjoy the arrival of something entirely new! I'm proud to announce the upcoming arrival of a feature that I hope will help our community come together in an exciting way. Starting in the upcoming version, every member will have access to user-created game updates called LAB files; and every member can easily create them as well. Instead of waiting for the official game updates, you'll be able to download LABs and load them into the GamePadz software. Even if you aren't into helping out by doing a bunch research and uploading covers you can at least help yourself by filling in the title and origin of your rare new imports or blistering hot new releases and immediately have yourself a proper place-holder in your game database. When the official updates arrive via Automatic Update, you'll be able to choose which ones should replace your LAB-based game data. LAB files are vastly superior to being able to edit your local database because they they can effectively serve exactly that purpose while automatically sharing everyone's work with everyone else! The new LAB functionality is about 60% completed, and as of today the software fully supports flag-indicators for games that originate from 14 different countries. So sit tight because it won't be long before we have multiple console databases and an exploding selection of LAB files for everything from the original gameboy to the XBOX 360. w00t!!! News & Updates forum or subscribe to our RSS feed in order to get development updates. Ssh, don't tell anyone! This is a special case because the next version of GamePadz is coming with a ton of new features, fixes, and changes and I can't keep it secret any longer! Some members will appreciate the 25% reduction in memory, others will be happy to see a number of new usability-related settings. But most will enjoy the arrival of something entirely new!

I'm proud to announce the upcoming arrival of a feature that I hope will help our community come together in an exciting way. Starting in the upcoming version, every member will have access to user-created game updates called LAB files; and every member can easily create them as well. Instead of waiting for the official game updates, you'll be able to download LABs and load them into the GamePadz software. Even if you aren't into helping out by doing a bunch research and uploading covers you can at least help yourself by filling in the title and origin of your rare new imports or blistering hot new releases and immediately have yourself a proper place-holder in your game database. When the official updates arrive via Automatic Update, you'll be able to choose which ones should replace your LAB-based game data.

LAB files are vastly superior to being able to edit your local database because they they can effectively serve exactly that purpose while automatically sharing everyone's work with everyone else!

The new LAB functionality is about 60% completed, and as of today the software fully supports flag-indicators for games that originate from 14 different countries. So sit tight because it won't be long before we have multiple console databases and an exploding selection of LAB files for everything from the original gameboy to the XBOX 360. w00t!!! ]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2006 03:01:52 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=55 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=55 Lately I have been working toward reducing GamePadz's memory footprint. To be sure, there are other important things needing attention... but tackling memory consumption is a challenge with special appeal; and no easy task considering the way that I code is hardly wasteful of resources. When I made the decision that GamePadz should have an embedded browser, I told myself that I'd offset the added footprint with vigilence and optimization... and I said this again when I reasoned to add the 3D box art viewer. Machines with large amounts of inexpensive memory are prevalent these days, but GamePadz is only getting started. So my recent focus on optimization has as much to do with it being an overdue item on my "To Do" as it does with prepping for the future. At first my strategy was to attempt to switch the database format and start using DB-aware controls. I got pretty far on this tack but ultimately I realized that the amount of work involved would mean rewriting the majority of the codebase. Not to mention the time it takes to learn the quirks of a suitably customizable grid control and make it look and feel right. So I decided to stick with XML and ended up redoing, adding, and deleting TONS of code anyway. Before these optimizations GamePadz was taking about 41mb after loading the homepage; now it only takes about 30mb. This is a 25% improvement! And it was hard earned... in fact, most of the developer (hi!) routines that support saving out the database and update files still need to be rewritten. In the course of optimizing I refamilarized myself with the code and I feel better than ever now about the huge task of adding support for multiple consoles. I fixed a potential issue where "Publisher" and "Developer" could be accidentally swapped, and I corrected several design decisions that reduce the need for special explanations and therefore increased the likelihood of introducing bugs. Another thing I've done was to switch out the components used to parse and save XML. GamePadz no longer uses the Microsoft XML Parser and so it no longer depends upon the presence of several DLL files. This isn't a huge win since most people have these DLLs but it feels good to eliminate a potential point of failure. There are still a few issues with undecoded character entities, but nothing I can't handle. Just thought I'd let you know how things are coming and state for the record that I am through with The Godfather for now and working regularly to make GamePadz the best.
When I made the decision that GamePadz should have an embedded browser, I told myself that I'd offset the added footprint with vigilence and optimization... and I said this again when I reasoned to add the 3D box art viewer. Machines with large amounts of inexpensive memory are prevalent these days, but GamePadz is only getting started. So my recent focus on optimization has as much to do with it being an overdue item on my "To Do" as it does with prepping for the future.

At first my strategy was to attempt to switch the database format and start using DB-aware controls. I got pretty far on this tack but ultimately I realized that the amount of work involved would mean rewriting the majority of the codebase. Not to mention the time it takes to learn the quirks of a suitably customizable grid control and make it look and feel right.

So I decided to stick with XML and ended up redoing, adding, and deleting TONS of code anyway. Before these optimizations GamePadz was taking about 41mb after loading the homepage; now it only takes about 30mb. This is a 25% improvement! And it was hard earned... in fact, most of the developer (hi!) routines that support saving out the database and update files still need to be rewritten.

In the course of optimizing I refamilarized myself with the code and I feel better than ever now about the huge task of adding support for multiple consoles. I fixed a potential issue where "Publisher" and "Developer" could be accidentally swapped, and I corrected several design decisions that reduce the need for special explanations and therefore increased the likelihood of introducing bugs.

Another thing I've done was to switch out the components used to parse and save XML. GamePadz no longer uses the Microsoft XML Parser and so it no longer depends upon the presence of several DLL files. This isn't a huge win since most people have these DLLs but it feels good to eliminate a potential point of failure. There are still a few issues with undecoded character entities, but nothing I can't handle.

Just thought I'd let you know how things are coming and state for the record that I am through with The Godfather for now and working regularly to make GamePadz the best. ]]> Mon, 20 Mar 2006 08:16:24 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=53 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=53 Now you can show your support for the site and software here and elsewhere with a single line of code. Please feel free to use it on your website, other forums, or wherever! 574){window.open('http://www.gamepadz.com/images/sig350x19.jpg')}"> To try it out, go to "Profile > Edit My Profile > Signature" and drop in this ready-to-go BBCode: Code: [url=http://www.gamepadz.com][img]http://www.gamepadz.com/images/sig350x19.jpg[/img][/url] or for a website the HTML is: Code: <a href="http://www.gamepadz.com"><img src="http://www.gamepadz.com/images/sig350x19.jpg" width="350" height="19" border="0" alt="GamePadz.com - Member+User" title="GamePadz.com - Member+User"> /></a> Have an idea for a new design? Want to suggest a different image size? Can't get it working on some site? Leave a comment!

To try it out, go to "Profile > Edit My Profile > Signature" and drop in this ready-to-go BBCode:

Code:

[url=http://www.gamepadz.com][img]http://www.gamepadz.com/images/sig350x19.jpg[/img][/url]

or for a website the HTML is:

Code:

<a href="http://www.gamepadz.com"><img src="http://www.gamepadz.com/images/sig350x19.jpg" width="350" height="19" border="0" alt="GamePadz.com - Member+User" title="GamePadz.com - Member+User"> /></a>

Have an idea for a new design? Want to suggest a different image size? Can't get it working on some site? Leave a comment! ]]> Wed, 08 Mar 2006 00:34:43 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=50 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=50 In preparation for some sweet new features of the GamePadz website, I have done some moderate restructuring of the genres by which the Xbox games are organized. As a result, 15 genres have been consolidated out of existence and we should all give a warm welcome to "Miscellaneous > On-foot Racing". Of the 33 games updated, five (Panzer Dragoon Orta, Metal Slug 3, Stubbs the Zombie, Tecmo Classic Arcade, Jade Empire) are now marked "Xbox Exclusive" thanks to the generous efforts of Dark Oblivion. Since this is the first major test of the Game Revisions aspect of the update system, the many other such games he identified will be updated soon if there aren't any troubling bug reports. These updates occur as the program loads for all registered members. Join us, it's FREE! To check whether the updates worked, look for "Updating x of 33 Games" while loading the program. Alternately, inspect the "Xbox Exclusive" checkbox for the 5 games listed above to see if they have become checked off. If you have version 0.5.3 or higher and the update didn't seem to work, please send me a PM via the forums if you're willing to keep in touch as I attempt to figure out why.

Of the 33 games updated, five (Panzer Dragoon Orta, Metal Slug 3, Stubbs the Zombie, Tecmo Classic Arcade, Jade Empire) are now marked "Xbox Exclusive" thanks to the generous efforts of Dark Oblivion. Since this is the first major test of the Game Revisions aspect of the update system, the many other such games he identified will be updated soon if there aren't any troubling bug reports.

These updates occur as the program loads for all registered members. Join us, it's FREE!

To check whether the updates worked, look for "Updating x of 33 Games" while loading the program. Alternately, inspect the "Xbox Exclusive" checkbox for the 5 games listed above to see if they have become checked off. If you have version 0.5.3 or higher and the update didn't seem to work, please send me a PM via the forums if you're willing to keep in touch as I attempt to figure out why.]]> Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:53:39 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=48 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=48 I have to admit that lately my development efforts have been a bit scattered. When you don't have a boss or a team expecting you to produce things on schedule this sort of thing tends to happen. On the bright side, I have been working on some cool new stuff for GamePadz! I just haven't finished any of it yet. Recently, Dark Oblivion was kind enough to pour over the database and determine precisely which games are "Xbox Exclusive". This was a great contribution; I just haven't gotten around to updating the games. I look forward to it though, because this will be the first major test of the Game Revisions aspect of the Automatic Update system. One thing I'm prepared to admit is in the works is an "Arcade" area for members to compete against each other for trophies (high scores) earned in Flash games that load in popup windows. It isn't directly related to the kind of games we focus on here, but it is gaming, and I hope it will give us something additional to rally around. The basics are working and looking very good, but there are something like 20 template files in total and I've only converted a handful. I've also been working on my goal of having a page dedicated to every game. Since I'm no expert in PHP, MySQL, Flash, or ActionScript 2.0... it is taking some time to learn more about these languages, programs, and platforms get things in order. Except for not having any income I don't really mind this part of the process because learning and mastering unfamiliar technologies is fun. Really! Now that I have the basic game pages set up and looking half-decent, the next step is to make them navigable. Ideally, this means adding: paginated week-based timeline (release date) browsing alphabetical browsing title searching w/paginated results breadcrumb style genre browsing Unfortunately, doing this won't mesh well with the zero-maintenance way that I enabled these pages to work. Basically, it just pulls the data from the same files sent out via the Automatic Update. Without a proper database, these kinds of navigations would be a nightmare to implement and maintain. Luckily, my work thus far needn't go to waste. I can add new php script that will traverse the folder containing the update files and use the existing code to parse the titles, release dates, and genres for insertion into the needed database. With a little elbow grease, I should be able to automate the updating of this database within the existing add/update procedures. And yet, as much as I'd love to dive into this right away... there's a problem. The genre tree of the existing game database needs some major work. It's too depressing to get into right now, but suffice it to say that fixing it will mean doing a considerable amount of boring game reasearch. Once done though, the genre modifications should deploy seamlessly along with the new "Xbox Exclusive" flags determined by Dark Oblivion. This is hardly a complete list of the recent developments affecting the future of GamePadz. This is more like a snapshot so those of you who give a damn might understand that the GamePadz of today is only glimmer of what it could become.
Recently, Dark Oblivion was kind enough to pour over the database and determine precisely which games are "Xbox Exclusive". This was a great contribution; I just haven't gotten around to updating the games. I look forward to it though, because this will be the first major test of the Game Revisions aspect of the Automatic Update system.

One thing I'm prepared to admit is in the works is an "Arcade" area for members to compete against each other for trophies (high scores) earned in Flash games that load in popup windows. It isn't directly related to the kind of games we focus on here, but it is gaming, and I hope it will give us something additional to rally around. The basics are working and looking very good, but there are something like 20 template files in total and I've only converted a handful.

I've also been working on my goal of having a page dedicated to every game. Since I'm no expert in PHP, MySQL, Flash, or ActionScript 2.0... it is taking some time to learn more about these languages, programs, and platforms get things in order. Except for not having any income I don't really mind this part of the process because learning and mastering unfamiliar technologies is fun. Really!

Now that I have the basic game pages set up and looking half-decent, the next step is to make them navigable. Ideally, this means adding:

1. paginated week-based timeline (release date) browsing
   
2. alphabetical browsing
   
3. title searching w/paginated results
   
4. breadcrumb style genre browsing
   

Unfortunately, doing this won't mesh well with the zero-maintenance way that I enabled these pages to work. Basically, it just pulls the data from the same files sent out via the Automatic Update. Without a proper database, these kinds of navigations would be a nightmare to implement and maintain.

Luckily, my work thus far needn't go to waste. I can add new php script that will traverse the folder containing the update files and use the existing code to parse the titles, release dates, and genres for insertion into the needed database. With a little elbow grease, I should be able to automate the updating of this database within the existing add/update procedures.

And yet, as much as I'd love to dive into this right away... there's a problem. The genre tree of the existing game database needs some major work. It's too depressing to get into right now, but suffice it to say that fixing it will mean doing a considerable amount of boring game reasearch. Once done though, the genre modifications should deploy seamlessly along with the new "Xbox Exclusive" flags determined by Dark Oblivion.

This is hardly a complete list of the recent developments affecting the future of GamePadz. This is more like a snapshot so those of you who give a damn might understand that the GamePadz of today is only glimmer of what it could become. ]]> Wed, 22 Feb 2006 13:11:54 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=44 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=44 I just finished implementing the GamePadz template for the mailer form. Now that this is turned on, Bad People can't trawl our member list to harvest our email addresses. Instead, when you click the email button it now loads the mailer form and the site will send an email on your behalf and make the reply-address the email you registered with. Standard stuff really. With this update there is now nowhere anywhere on this site that anyone can see the email you used during registration.
With this update there is now nowhere anywhere on this site that anyone can see the email you used during registration. ]]> Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:53:40 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=43 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=43 I just finished adding a few nice changes to the news script that powers the front-page promotion of topics in this forum. Most notably, it now only promotes topics posted in the "Notice" category. So now I can use this forum to post info of lesser importance without bumping the current news from the main page. This is nice because sometimes I like to talk about recent developments that are more blog-like in tone or are just sorta trivial... kinda like the post you're reading now. I also made the subject line of the main story link to the topic it originates from, and bolded it. See? Trivial. But now you know! This same script is also related to the one that generates the RSS feed delivering the front page news. So once I've post this I'll need to see if it appears via RSS. Even if not, I'll need to make a decision soon about whether the drivel in this forum that doesn't make the cut for a "Notice" deserves to stay in the feed. As a wannabe narcissist I'm leaning toward yes.
Most notably, it now only promotes topics posted in the "Notice" category. So now I can use this forum to post info of lesser importance without bumping the current news from the main page. This is nice because sometimes I like to talk about recent developments that are more blog-like in tone or are just sorta trivial... kinda like the post you're reading now.

I also made the subject line of the main story link to the topic it originates from, and bolded it. See? Trivial. But now you know!

This same script is also related to the one that generates the RSS feed delivering the front page news. So once I've post this I'll need to see if it appears via RSS. Even if not, I'll need to make a decision soon about whether the drivel in this forum that doesn't make the cut for a "Notice" deserves to stay in the feed. As a wannabe narcissist I'm leaning toward yes. ]]> Tue, 21 Feb 2006 13:01:24 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=42 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=42 Version: 0.5.4 Beta Released: February 21st, 2006 Download Now Our forums are a desolate wasteland devoid of any real conversation. If you're a gamer looking for a new forum to call home, welcome to GamePadz! We need motivated posters to help get the word out about GamePadz and help bring life to this community. Have a look around and decide for yourself, but keep in mind that we're just starting out and over time this site will evolve in some amazing ways. So if you like this site and the GamePadz software and want to help shape the look and feel of things to come, introduce yourself here today! Enjoy the new release! feature: added 25 Xbox games to database feature: "My Notes" feature saves your game notes feature: multiple language localization support bugfix: no longer crashes at execution in presence of OpenGL 2.x bugfix: restored log out button functionality Version: 0.5.4 Beta
Released: February 21st, 2006
Download Now

Our forums are a desolate wasteland devoid of any real conversation. If you're a gamer looking for a new forum to call home, welcome to GamePadz! We need motivated posters to help get the word out about GamePadz and help bring life to this community. Have a look around and decide for yourself, but keep in mind that we're just starting out and over time this site will evolve in some amazing ways. So if you like this site and the GamePadz software and want to help shape the look and feel of things to come, introduce yourself here today!

Enjoy the new release!

• feature: added 25 Xbox games to database
  
• feature: "My Notes" feature saves your game notes
  
• feature: multiple language localization support
  
• bugfix: no longer crashes at execution in presence of OpenGL 2.x
  
• bugfix: restored log out button functionality

]]> Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:22:13 GMT http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=37 http://www.gamepadz.com/viewtopic.php?t=37 As of 6:07am EST today the Automatic Game Updates system began serving 25 new Xbox games. This brings the grand total to 762 games, which appears in the "Titles" column of the main list on the "All Games" tab. I'm happy to report that for me at least, this inaugural batch of updates is downloaded and integrated without a single hitch! 574){window.open('http://www.gamepadz.com/images/myposts/updating!.jpg')}"> The check for updates occurs for all registered members (Join us, it's free!) as the program starts. So if you're a registered member with version 0.5.3 and the update doesn't seem to work please send me a PM via the forums if you're willing to keep in touch for awhile as I attempt to figure out why. What's next? Version 0.5.4 is just around the bend now, bringing with it some bug fixes, language localization, and these 25 new games packaged in. w00t!! Automatic Game Updates system began serving 25 new Xbox games. This brings the grand total to 762 games, which appears in the "Titles" column of the main list on the "All Games" tab. I'm happy to report that for me at least, this inaugural batch of updates is downloaded and integrated without a single hitch!

The check for updates occurs for all registered members (Join us, it's free!) as the program starts. So if you're a registered member with version 0.5.3 and the update doesn't seem to work please send me a PM via the forums if you're willing to keep in touch for awhile as I attempt to figure out why.

What's next? Version 0.5.4 is just around the bend now, bringing with it some bug fixes, language localization, and these 25 new games packaged in. w00t!! ]]>