http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php en-us CuteNews http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1231289659&archive= today that UGO player is buying 1up.com and cutting EGM magazine (one of the longest-running print video game magazines).

My best wishes to all the employees lost in the transition; my heart goes out to you today. It's really a dark cloud over the video game community when some of the best and brightest writers, podcasters, and personalities in the video game industry get lost due to these circumstances. You guys really make a difference in the industry and I hate to see this happen.

Good luck to all of you.]]> 1231289659 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:54:19 -0700 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1230230388&archive=
Merry Christmas and happy holidays. I'm up near Seattle for Christmas this year with my future in-laws, having a snowy time. I'll be in warm California soon, hope you all have a good holiday. Cheers!

John]]> 1230230388 Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:39:48 -0700 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1229792942&archive= Achievement Unlocked is getting. It's hit several major game media sites and has probably reaped the most hits in the shortest amount of time (over 230k plays on Armor Games alone in 3 days).

Articles have been written about it on:

* JayIsGames
* Gaygamer.net
* Kotaku
* Press The Buttons
* The Escapist Magazine

I'll keep you guys posted, but for now I'm really excited at how well it is doing :).

]]> 1229792942 Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:09:02 -0700 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1229537489&archive=
I decided to parody all of that. Behold, a game where you do absolutely nothing but that! I call it Achievement Unlocked (remember I am holding off hosting my own stuff until I get onto the new site, things will be hosted locally soon -J).

100 achievements to unlock, all featuring our favourite little blue elephant (or pink, if you know what to do). 1 level, no objectives, no special moves, enemies, bosses, or obstacles. Pure, unadulterated achievement metagaming.

AND POLKA!

Go play it :).]]> 1229537489 Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:11:29 -0700 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1229285181&archive=
I got engaged last night to my girlfriend of 5 years. Carlie and I have been dating since high school, wound up at the same college, and still managed to somehow end up together after all this time. I popped the question last night and she said YES!

No date has been set, no real plans made, but it's been quite a relationship and it's nice to move onto the next step of it!

She's put up with my feverish coding for all these years, is truly a best friend, and totally one-of-kind. I'm quite happy at the moment :).]]> 1229285181 Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:06:21 -0700 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1228367279&archive=
Last week I got wicked sick after Thanksgiving when I went to an unmentionable food location and consumed nearly 2 pounds of chili and hot dogs. I got really bad food poisoning and ended up nearly throwing up my lungs in the process (or at least it felt like it).

It's been a strange, slow recovery. The vomiting has stopped but I still feel drained, tired, and jittery. It's as if my body has just rejected everything I have thrown at it.

I don't usually feel this sick but this week it's just been awful. I typically get sick for a day or two, but never food poisoning and anything like that. It's not stress or anything, just a strange flu.

Dark Cut 3 launched a few weeks ago, and I forgot to update the "Hey update this later" section. Dark Cut 3 was a long, tedious, amazingly difficult project to tackle. It was my largest and most complex project to date, requiring a massive amount of nitty gritty editing, reediting, and rereediting to get it to where I wanted it. Although I probably didn't reach the solid peak of awesome (I tried really hard though!) it was a good showing, and I liked how it turned out. It was getting pretty nitpicky by the end.

The new website, as always, takes longer than expected! My deadlines, even 4 years later, are never met! All the data from the site is moved over but the forums are just not quite there yet. I'm not a php/mysql programmer and it's all very foreign ground to me, so getting it working and working right is quite a challenge (I'm having fun with it though).

Things I'm working on:

Archery Game - Probably not what you think, but it was this interesting idea I came up with once at work. Should be out either this week or early next week.

Platformer Game - Should be out sometime this month.

Red 2 Animation - Yes, I'm still working on it.

The Website - Still chugging along!

Anything not listed here is either getting worked on as soon as one of these other things goes away, but the RPG and other projects are still in line. I'm always busy, always working... so it's not like I'm just sitting on my butt writing a long news post about it (or maybe I am because I feel sick and have no energy to do anything else!).

Hope everyone is getting a good kickstart to their holiday season.

-J]]> 1228367279 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:07:59 -0700 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1226682339&archive= It's out!

More to be posted.]]> 1226682339 Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:05:39 -0700 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1224959314&archive=
I'm in the process of moving the site from one server to another to optimize the website.

Here I am, installing the new forum into the new website location. Everything is going well, until I hit the mySQL > Export (mySQL is where all the Forum posts for the site is located), and it generates a 260 MB file. Okay, I can *almost* deal with that. I then go and Export the forum attachments and images... 600 MB?! 700 MB!? Wholly cripes!

Suddenly realizing I have to move an ENTIRE GB worth of forum data safely somehow, I decided to call off this party. I am not that web-savvy to be moving GB's worth of data. It takes a few minutes just to upload a Flash file (3 MB), how was I supposed to move that much data?

I'm going to have to think about how to do this the best way. Our forums can't suffer another crash or misstep, and to just throw everything at a new website without taking the right steps is not okay in my eyes. So until I figure that out or until I can hire someone who's a professional at moving incredible amounts of data, I am going to take a breather here.

Forums are back open until then.]]> 1224959314 Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:28:34 -0600 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1224866203&archive=
]]> 1224866203 Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:36:43 -0600 http://www.jmtb02.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1223915888&archive=
So maybe the news section isn't so closed. I have had so much going on recently I had to make an update or else face the consequences with a 5 page news post in a couple weeks.

So this weekend was supposed to be the "big move" over to the server. Sadly, I am not quite done yet, and I forgot my girlfriend is coming in this weekend, so that would be a TERRIBLE way for her to spend the weekend with me. So I am moving it to the following weekend. Stay tuned!

Second, I just completed the MS Ride from Irvine, CA to San Diego, CA, and I am pretty gosh darn proud of myself! I rode 100 miles with my boss (Dan) from Armor Games and a few of his buddies. We even had Armor Games jerseys special-printed for the ride! Pictures to come, don't worry! I looked hot (maybe if you like tall-skinny guys in biking jerseys). But the best part of this ride was knowing I was doing it for a good cause. Accomplishing my own goals and supporting a cause for others at the same time is pretty much the most awesome thing on earth.

Third, Hedgehog Launch made it onto the BBC again, on the show Click Online! They previously featured Ball Revamped a few odd years ago, and I am so excited to see another TV promo! Yippee! Thanks to the keen-eyed forum members for this one!

And finally, Dark Cut 3. Totally in production right now. Stay tuned. Lots of surgeries.

-John]]> 1223915888 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:38:08 -0600