Just a quick note on what's been going on lately. For one thing, I've noted a few posts ago that the original podcast Geek Democracy was officially dead due to horrible audio quality and lack of vision. The final nail in the coffin came just yesterday when I emptied the podcast feed, changed the white-and-blue theme (called Regulus) to Chaos Theory and turned the title into Casual Tech Observer/DS Jim. An archive of the old episodes will DEFINITELY be posted, but starting this week the podcast is gone.

HOWEVER, when I changed the name of my blog to Casual Tech Observer I noticed that my iTunes feed immediately changed to reflect the new name, as did Feedburner. So for anyone who received error messages while attempting to download the podcast (about six subscribers, right?) it's not YOU, it's just that there are no shows in the feed yet. I'm working on the site and I promise better content.

In the meantime here's a link to theWordpress blog(in progress) as well as the machine that will power the podcast until my next purchase.

Here's hoping that they have some left by Thursday night (October 16th). Until next week I'm available for all Wii or DS owners out there.

James

Hello, hello, hello, I know that it's only been less than twenty-four hours since my last blog, but I've just found out about Nintendo's attempt to stop Sony's PSP's Japanese market expansion and take their latest hardware cue from Apple's iPhone:

Source: Joystiq

At Nintendo's recent News Summit in Japan Satoru Iwata (probably determined to make the conference a much better attempt to wow the public than their recent E3 abortion) to unveil what looks to me to be an iPhone, cartridge-based PSP, and DS Lite in one (without GBA playback). It seems that recent events such as the rabid pirating of DS games, Sony's growing expansion of PSP hardware sales (thanks to Monster Hunter) in Japan, complaints regarding the lack of built-in multimedia features and the size of the screens as prompted Nintendo and their engineering staff to take action.

Before I go into why I'm excited yet perplexed at the announcement, let me give you the specs (courtesy of Joystiq but paraphrased to avoid issues)

*12% smaller than the DS Lite (thanks to the omission of the Game Boy Advance slot, that means no Guitar Hero peripherals in mid 2009, people).

*Two camera lenses - one on the hinge pointed at you next to the microphone, and the other on the lid. You can edit the pictures via the touchscreen. Pictures will be standard definition (640x480).

*SD memory card slot is included in place of everyone's love-it-or-loathe-it GBA slot. The DSi will also ship with imbedded storage memory.

*Screen sizes have increased and are now 3.25 inches. Screen resolution (I'm guessing) remains unchanged.

*DS Browser is now built-in (retaining it's crappiness? At least gamers won't have to pay $35.00 USD for it anymore)...

*DSWare Online Store - operating using the Nintendo Points system. Software will be priced as follows: Free, 200 Points, 500 Points and 800 Points. All new DSi owners will receive a 1,000 Point credit to spend on merchandise.

*The DSi will ship in matte white and matte black (like Joystiq says, NO MORE FINGERPRINTS!) in Japan on November 1st for the equivelant of $179.99 USD or 18,900 yen.

Darn, I'm running out of time. Before YukoAsho comes over and trashes me for showing the least amount of interest in Nintendo's new offering, I just want to say that I desperately need a replacement DS as I've been playing my two-year-old onyx DS Lite to death. It has Adwance Wars scars all over the touch screen, tracings from Sonic Rush, permanant smudges on the case, the serial number is unreadable, there's dust on the touch screen's edges, a slight dent on the corner of the lid from dropping it while surfing the web in the laundromat...the list goes on ). I was going to pick up a silver DS Lite after Christmas for myself but hearing about this makes me want to hold off.

Also, I'm a very broke man, with a mother, siblings, rent, bills, and school. I DO NOT spend money to replace things unless I have to, and any item that will allow multiple functions yet being moderately priced is a good thing. I could spend $130.00 USD after Christmas for a new DS, or wait until around spring and pay $180.00 USD for a DS/web browser/camera/GB-GBC/multimedia device. I'm not going to kid myself or you in saying that the multimedia features will be great (because they won't, not as high-res or as polished as the PSP and definitely the iPhone/iPod Touch) but the potential is in there.

Am I impressed? Yes. Will I purchase one? Yes, because I NEED a replacement. Will I use all of the features? I'm a blogger/podcaster, so definitely. Let's start of DS Jim with a bang!

James

Good morning/afternoon/evening, I hope that the recent implosions of the stock market haven't hit any of my fellow mature gamers financially.

Ouch for the date; it seems like I'm only able to blog around once a month now that I'm back in school, have additional responsibilities at work and not enough time to even sleep let alone blog. The last time I've written was on September 8th and a lot has happened since then. While I'm not as eager as other Gamespot members to make new friends and constantly keep an eye on my friends counter (I know a former GS friend who did this SHAMELESSLY and was insulted when I stopped tracking him, I don't know why as he had over 800 friends...) I am surprised to see that for the most part all of my remaining GS friends are still on the list. I had a couple of hours this morning to email apologies and "good luck" messages for those who have dropped off, but I'm glad that I don't have to write any of those messages (yet).

So, as the title states I have two more weeks until I purchase...well...SOMETHING! I mean, my Wii's Internet Channel and DS Browser can only handle so much and while these methods are good for making one or two short forum posts they stink at writing the mammoth-sized blogs that I LOVE writing. I've managed to comment on a friend's page or so (Jekyll and Drummer I think, and I owe 6h05t and Vexx a LOT) but my contributions have been nil since I gave up my Vista machine for the family's use. It's now slow as a snail and all of the front USB ports don't work. Don't ask me how they did it but they're afraid of me fixing it for fear of losing critical data. Hmm...

Oh well, by October 18th none of this will matter as I'll once again be writing insane drivel on GS and Giant Bomb as well as making actual DS Jim videos...you know...with an actual webcam with a new computer/laptop. I'll try and get Patrick (TempleTrio) back on once I reconfigure Skype and add some plug-ins, and together we'll converse on Wii and DS-related happenings as well as restructure Geek Democracy into Casual Tech Observer. I don't know what I'll do with the old episodes but they're so bad I'll just archive them as version 1 and build a separate feed so the bad quality doesn't infect CTO. I just need more time to make that work. That will be a weekend job.

I know some of you may be wondering what the heck I've been doing for almost four weeks when I'm not in school, working overtime, helping my sister and her family move back into our house (don't ask), and search for a better job:

Disgaea DS (Nippon ichi Software / NIS America), $29.99 USD - What can I say, as a former PS2 gamer I couldn't resist. Too bad KenshinGirl isn't around anymore; I wanted I rant with her about Etna's new voice! I HATE IT! Remember the godawful Grandia localization for PS-X back in 1999 with the hyper-perky, over-expressive voice acting? Etna's voice is like that, BUT WORSE. Every time she speaks I find myself turning down the volume (which isn't often as there's little in the amount of voice acting for the DS version). Still, the sprites are decent enough, the visual downscaling isn't bad at all (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness for the PS2 wasn't known for graphical qualities), and the challenge to raise a level 9999 overlord is still there. The only bad thing is that I have little time to PLAY it. Still, a very noteworthy purchase (and the 30th permanant DS title in my collection.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (Square Enix), $39.99 USD - I was a little apprehensive about picking this title over the overhyped Final Fantasy IV remake (which I've waited for years for it's release). I bought this title anyway because I KNEW that SE would probably make many more copies of FFIV for distribution than DQIV and I was looking for a new experience, so I picked it up. While I like the premise of playing through the prologues of each of the supporting characters (think Wild Arms but with several more hours of content and character development) the game requires a LOT of level grinding before some of the supporting characters have a chance to fight a few random encounters. I grew a little bored of the game but because it's forty dollars I HAVE to play through it. At least, that's what I WAS telling myself until I took this game off of my shelf and tossed it in my travel bag for my commute:

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Square Enix), $39.99 USD (purchased early 200 - This game will be my first GS DS Jim video topic as I love this game. To me it's the perfect blend of orchestral music (it's even worth trolling Amazon to purchase the official soundtrack), characters, plot and isometric three-dimensional graphics with some good-quality FMV and light-sourcing thrown in. There were a few gamers who complained about the "2D sprites on a 3D environment" motif, but to be honest it DOESN'T break the game, and it DOESN'T change the fact that this is the most addictive Square Enix-developed product in my DS library. Final Fantasy III is gathering dust. FFCC: Ring of Fates (the only used game/case I have) is laughably nigh-unplayable, Dragon Quest requires grinding (but can be overcome), and even SE-published titles like Space Invaders Extreme and Arkanoid DS (...) have had a short run. But the perfect blend of element plus decent touch screen controls makes this DS game one of my top five picks. Look for a "final thoughts" post and video coming REALLY soon.

I've also picked up GRID for the DS, which is a "meh" purchase for me because after playing it I wish I had a next-gen console so that I could play the console version. I'll say nothing more about the game and save it for a DS Jim video.

I would add some Virtual Console purchases and describe a few WiiWare titles but I think I've written enough, plus I want to read some Joystiq and Kotaku articles after I proofread this. So to wrap this up: buying a new PC or laptop two weeks from Thursday, thanks to all who have stayed (though some of you haven't had the time to write blogs either), this blog, Giant Bomb blog and my website will see a wrecking ball and some engineering, one podcast will die, two more will be born, the DS is bad-a$$, and games will good atmosphere, audio and plot STAY in my library.

Gh05t, Vexx and several others, thank you for visiting; hopefully I can return the favor in two weeks.

James