Hung Truong: The Blog!

How Japanese See America

Over at Yukihime, there’s a scanned map from an old Sega Saturn RPG that was set in the United States. From Yukihime:

This map is basically what would happen if you got a bunch of Japanese guys in a room, got them drunk, and then asked them to draw what they could remember about America on a bar napkin. Hell, that’s probably how this game was originally designed. Anyhow, I feel the map speaks for itself.

This is really distressing. I’m assuming this is some kind of parody thing, but Chicago is some kind of mega fortress, Alaska has an ice palace, Montana seems to be some kind of Neko City, and Saint Paul has a giant one of those bird things that drink water! Most of America also seems to be covered in impassable mountain terrain. At least they had a location from New Mexico: Carlsbad Caverns!

Also scary is the existence of Mexico, but not Canada…

As bad as this is, I have a feeling Americans could probably not do any better.

Shojo Manga! Girl Power!

So today in Japanese class, instead of having class as usual, we went over to this traveling art exhibit about shoujo manga. Shoujo manga is written for girls, so no guys in the class really admitted to reading any of it, per se. Actually, I don’t read shoujo manga either; I watch the anime…

Anyway, the exhibit goes through three time periods of shojou manga from the 1960s all the way to the present. The art seemed pretty cool, and I was surprised at times how “modern” the stuff from the 70’s looked. I was hoping there’d be more Yuri and less Yaoi, but what can ya do!? We also got to talk to Masami Toku (the director of the project) briefly about the history of shoujo manga.The exhibit runs until around the middle of the month (I think), so if you’re at UNM, check it out at Maisley Gallery.

I also snuck out with a copy of Shoujo Beat Manga Sampler! “Snuck out” not as in stealing (it’s free after all) but as in getting away with it as a guy. Man, can’t they label these manga something else, like “masculine” and “not quite as masculine?” Honestly though, I don’t care if people know I read shoujo manga, I mean, I’m writing about it on my blog right?

Here’s a link to the exhibit’s homepage in case you’re interested.

Novint Falcon: Haptic Device Test Drive!

Today in my Computer Game Development class, someone from Novint (a local company specializing in haptic devices) showed a demo of the Novint Falcon. What’s a haptic device? It’s sort of like a game controller that can provide feedback in all directions. There were some texture demos, and a few games like launch the duck, where you grab a duck in a slingshot, pull it back, and let go.

The cool thing is you can feel opposing force when you pull the duck back. It doesn’t feel quite perfect yet, but I believe it’s still in development. It was still really fun moving this device around (the one we used didn’t have a pen, it was more like a door knob), and feeling it respond.

I have a feeling that this device will end up being a novelty, unless it sees huge support from every developer in the world. Sure, it can be used for other stuff like medical simulations, but in the field of video games, I’m not too sure it’ll take off. Here’s the official company line:

The Novint Falcon, which is designed to retail for under $100, is the only consumer device to provide three-dimensional, high fidelity force feedback. Unlike any consumer force feedback product on the market, the Novint Falcon enables users to move right and left, forward and backwards, like they do with other devices, plus up and down. Users can now experience a full range of realistic touch sensations including shape, texture, weight and dynamics. The Novint Falcon connects to a PC through a USB port and its footprint is approximately 9”x 9”, comparable to a mousepad and most joysticks or peripherals.

Video Game Endings

Over at Game Revolution, there’s some old school video game endings. Now, back in my day, video games were hard. Really freakin’ hard! They weren’t as long as today’s game, and they didn’t have the cutscenes, but they had the power to make a controller fly across the room. Getting to a game ending was like the payoff for getting grey hairs at the age of ten. That’s why this website is so bitchin’! Spare your blood pressure and check out all the game endings without the work! Awesome!

Consumating: kinda like nerdspace

So I was perusing digg.com, and I came across a post about consumating.com. It’s sort of this social networking thing for people who are nerds. Okay, maybe a better word to use would be geeks. Not geeks in the carnival chicken head-biter sense, but in the geek chic kinda sense. I joined, because it seemed ‘aight. I know most of my readers are not nerds, but I have a feeling that this site will probably take over myspace and facebook as my personal #1 time waster. Check out my profile, and tag me as hot or something, will ya!?