Category: Games

SD card unexpectedly removed…

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Games, PicturesLeave a comment

SD card unexpectedly removed

Has anyone ever seen this issue before?  If you have an Android phone and a SanDisk memory card, you probably have.

So this is my problem today, well, last night anyway.  It was 8 p.m. and I was logging into The Sims FreePlay to send my 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sims to work.  As it was starting to load, it crashed to the home screen and I see this message “SD card unexpectedly removed.”  What the…?

I rebooted the phone and tried to load the game and got this message again, and again, and again.  I Googled the problem and read in a few forums that my microSD card is most likely no good and that I would need to buy a new one.  Well, I bought this card in January, how could it be bad after only 5 months?

One of my concerns was that I might have lost all of my pictures, because I never backed any of them up.  Some of them have automatically been privately synced onto Facebook, but not all of them, so if I lost all of my other images, I was going to be very disappointed.  I went into the pictures and they all had that triangle with the explanation point.  FRAK!  I rebooted the phone and they were all there, but then they disappeared… they came back and I was able to upload everything album by album onto Google Drive.  WHEW!

So another one of my concerns was that I haven’t backed up the Sims FreePlay in a few days, so all of the work that I have done will disappear and I will have to continue from where I left off the last time I backed it up to the cloud, which backs it up on Facebook.  Fortunately the game loaded last night and I was able to do a backup, but then this morning I got the “SD card unexpectedly removed” issue again, so I knew that I wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

This morning I went into the app management screen and saw that all of the apps on the microSD card were showing their icons, except for The Sims FreePlay.  Knowing that it was backed up on Facebook, I uninstalled the game and tried to reinstall it.  The first attempt wasn’t successful because it told me that it couldn’t install it, but then I tried it again and it worked.  I was able to send my 10 a.m. Sims to work on time.

I really don’t care if I have to buy a new microSD card, that is unimportant, what is most important to me is that I don’t lose my pictures, and I haven’t so I’m okay with it.  I only paid $20 for it which was a good price considering the Best Buy Mobile store at the mall was charging $35 for the PNY 32GB microSD card and $70 for the SanDisk 32GB microSD cards.  That is a lot of money.  Too much for my blood.

Last night after I backed up all of my pictures on Google Drive, I went through my apps and uninstalled a bunch that I never used that were on the microSD card.  I don’t know how many apps I uninstalled, but it was a lot.  I’ve been messing around with it after I reinstalled The Sims FreePlay today, and after rebooting it a couple of times found that one app is showing up weird in the App Management screen, so I uninstalled it.  I moved a lot of apps to the phone so that I don’t lose the data so those are fine.

Everything seems to be okay with The Sims FreePlay now after I have rebooted the phone and tried to go into the game.  I’m sure I don’t even have to buy a new card, but just in case I do, I will be very careful to back everything up.  Like if I take a picture, I will back it up with Google Drive and if I play The Sims FreePlay, I will upload my data to the cloud just to make sure I don’t lose any progress.  If I have to buy a new microSD card then no problem, but for now I don’t think I have to worry about it.

Have you had these same issues?  If so, what was your solution?  Enquiring minds want to know!

The (Frustrating) Sims FreePlay

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

The_Sims_Freeplay_1

I have been hooked on “The Sims” since the late 90’s when I first heard about it.  I was living in Hollywood and talking to someone on AOL who lived in Michigan and he told me about it and so I started playing.

I have the original Sims game with all the expansion packs.  I don’t have The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, but I heard they have way better graphics and are way more fun.  Although, I do have The Sims 2 Pets on my PSP, but it’s not the same thing as the PC version.  I also have The Sims Castaway for my PSP, I played The Sims Online when that was available and I play The Sims FreePlay on my Android phone, which is a ton of fun, but it can also be frustrating as hell.  Here is my page dedicated to The Sims.

The Sims FreePlay runs in real-time.  Like, say I have 16 Sims, which I do, and 2 of them go to work at 9 a.m. and 2 go to work at 10 a.m., well, I have to get up at 8 a.m. to get my 9 a.m. Sims needs filled up so I can send them to work.  That only takes a few minutes, but then I close the game and wait until 9 a.m. so I can get my 10 a.m. Sims to work.  That again only takes a few minutes.

So then I close the game and come back to get my noon Sims ready for school and work, but while I’m in the game, I go to use the wardrobe and it crashes the game and when I come back into the game, all of the Sims that I had sent to work are back in their houses.  All of the Sims that I had put to work in their garden who don’t have to work until later tonight aren’t working in their gardens anymore, they are standing in the front of the house or sitting on their couches picking their noses.  What the hell?  Seriously?  Why the hell did I wake up at 8 a.m.?

I don’t really care that that happens because the Sims end up making more money with gardening anyway, but I would love to not have to wake up early specifically to get the Sims to work and then have that BS happen.

My other grievance isn’t just with the game, but I think it also has something to do with my phone which is a HTC One V from Virgin Mobile.  Sometimes when I play the game it’s fast and I don’t have any issue getting around, while other times it’s so slow that I can’t get the screen to move at all.  The Sims characters are all either just standing or they are in mid stride trying to get to where they were going.  Then every minute the screen dims and then in a few seconds the phone goes to sleep and then I have to push the power button, slide the ring up and then wait for the screen that tells me how much my town is worth lol.  To prevent that from happening, I have to be very quick and pay close attention, but it’s hard when the game is sluggish.  The other way to prevent it from happening is to keep it plugged in while playing.  When it’s plugged in, the screen dims, but it doesn’t go to sleep.

I have to admit that it really is a fun game to play, even though it is laggy and glitchy.  I just built a Medieval Castle and it’s pretty cool, although it only had 1 bedroom which sucks because I have 2 Sims plus their 2 teenagers.  It had 2 dining rooms so I converted one of the dining rooms into a bedroom for both the kids.  It has both of their beds which they never sleep in since I have them drink an espresso to fulfill their sleep need lol.  The bedroom is more for decoration really.  I also wanted a place to put their study desk and their bookshelf and to showcase their Karate and Ballerina lamps LOL.  It seems silly, but it’s fun for me.

sims medieval castle sims kids room medieval castle

To answer your question, yes that Sim is wearing an Easter bunny costume lol.  I just took him out of it today and put a more medieval costume on him, the King costume.  Both of my Sims in this house are wearing a King costume, since they are a same-sex couple.  I tried getting the son to use the wardrobe to see if there was a prince costume, but naturally they only had kid clothes.  That’s why the game crashed.  I guess I have to build the costume shop to see if they have kids costumes.  My same-sex male couple have a son and a daughter and I would love for their clothes to match their house, even though I have added some things to the house that aren’t medieval lol.

Well, I just had to rant about it lol.  I guess there isn’t anything to do about it but just deal with it I guess.  I did install the original Sims game on my computer just so I could see the differences, and trust me, there are huge differences lol.

Anti-gay Android Game

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Anti-Gay, Games2 Comments

I have been playing video games since I was 10 or 12 years old. Video games usually consist of you playing a character who is on a mission to kill something to win the game. Not all games want you to kill something, for example The Sims or SimCity. Some games have a different outcome or objective other than killing.

I used to play adventure games from Sierra and those were games where you have to look for clues like a detective. Like the King’s Quest collection, Leisure Suit Larry and Quest for Glory for example.

I’m currently into MMORPG games like EverQuest, EverQuest 2 and Lord of the Rings Online. Although those games are the type that you have to kill something to gain experience points to gain levels. It’s not always a person, sometimes it’s a monster. A monster is one thing because you know that it is something that will kill you if you don’t kill it first. Like take a dragon for example, that is something that you obviously have to kill before it kills you, right? And that’s perfectly fine.

The thing that I have the issue with tonight, and I don’t think I’m overreacting, is that I found a game in the Google Android Market that aims at killing gay people. This game is called gay hunter. In their description they say “it could be a bit controversial too.” Ya think?

gay hunter 1

Description

Your the Ass Hunter, with shot gun in hand you hunt before you get hunted!
This game is just friggin’ hilarious! But it could be a bit controversial too. Don’t get assed yourself while hunting them!

Kill the naked ass pirates before they sodomize you! Don’t forget to find more ammo, and reload.
It’s worse than death to be caught by an Ass, so watch out hunter.

Hunt asses, and don’t get assed yourself.
Watch your Ass and enjoy!

I honestly don’t understand what goes through people’s minds when they decide to create a video game with the intention of killing a gay person who has done nothing wrong to deserve this punishment. A dragon is a harmful creature, a gay person just wants to live a normal life like everybody else. Why can’t they just give us that?

It’s a free country, so you can build your little anti-gay game if you want to, but I’m going to be who I am and I’m not going to let anyone dictate how I should live my life because it’s mine to live. I was born this way and I am happy that I was because it taught me to have more compassion for other people and I feel I am a better person for it. Whoever created this game has no morals and their karma is going to suffer for it, and that is my silver lining.

Awesome Update: I have a plugin that lets me know where there are dead links and I just found out that the link for this app is dead, so I went to Google Play and the app is GONE!  YAY!

The Sims 2 Castaway for PSP

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

sims2castaway-01

I have wanted to play this game for as long as I have had my PSP and I finally bought it today via digital download on the PlayStation Store directly on the PSP.  I love how you can just download games right onto your game system lol.  I mean, I couldn’t do that with my Atari 2600 back when I was a kid, or my Sega Game Gear and Nintendo Game Boy when I was in my early 20’s.  I just think this technology is awesome.  But I digress.

I love The Sims, I don’t know what it is about the series or why I like it so much.  In the  Sims games, you have to do certain things like sleep, eat, use the restroom, socialize, entertain yourself etc.  If you don’t do these things then your Sim will be very unhappy and probably die.  I’ve never let it get to that point so I wouldn’t know for sure that that would happen.

The Sims 2 Castaway, you start out on a boat and you get to add a bunch of characters.  I only added 2 because at the start of a game, I don’t want to have to deal with taking care of a bunch of Sims’ needs.  I can barely handle 1, so I just made 2 so that when the time came to take care of the 2nd guys needs, then I will figure it out.  I have the game forever so I can always either go back in and start over, or I can start a 2nd game.

After I created my Sims, they went sailing and there was a storm and yadda yadda yadda, stranded on a deserted island… castaway lol.  He is alone, so my 2nd sim must be somewhere else.  I haven’t found him yet.

All I seem to do is harvest things and fill my Sims needs.  I have to harvest banana leaves and vines and food and this and that and the other.  I need to harvest in order to eat, but I also have to harvest in order to make things, like clothes, a bed, a hut and whatever sorted things there are to make.  Even though I have to harvest everything, I already know that it doesn’t matter because I’m already addicted to it.  I just looked at the clock and it’s 1:30am.  The last time I checked the clock it was 11:30pm.  So I’ve been staring at my PSP for the last 2 hours like a zombie lol.

HPNX1995

This is my character.  You know, it’s too bad the PSP doesn’t take screenshots, otherwise the image would be so much nicer.  Here he is wearing “Elven Short Shorts” because I didn’t have the ingredients for making anything else.  This outfit took 5 banana leaves and 5 vines.  In order to make something else, I will need more of the same ingredients as well as grass.  Actually, this is the first outfit that I made, the second outfit I made is actually kind of embarrassing.  I wouldn’t want my picture taken with it on and so I am going to respect my Sim by not showing what he is wearing, you know, out of respect for a person that doesn’t exist lol.  He still has pride you know.

EA has only released 3 games for the PSP.  The Sims, The Sims 2: Pets and The Sims 2: Castaway.  I would love it if they would have 1 game with expansions you can buy, or maybe the Sims 3 with or without expansions.  I’d love to play the Sims that you get to play on the Android phones that have vampires in it lol.  Oh well, I will keep dreaming about that Android phone and maybe one day I might get one.  I will keep dreaming.  In the meantime, I have this new game to play and I love it.

WizOrb PSP Mini

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

wizorb_titlescreen

I have been spending a lot of my time lately either resting in bed, getting a shiatsu massage or a vibrating massage because of the chronic pain that I have been suffering in my back lately.  I say lately, but I have had Degenerative Disc Disease for a few years now, or longer, I only found out a few years ago from an MRI that I had it because of my shoulder pain.  I have actually been suffering chronic pain for a long time, but it comes and goes and this time it seems like it doesn’t want to go because I have been in constant pain for the last couple of weeks.

Because I’ve been spending a lot of time resting my back, I have been wishing I had a more mobile computer than my Chromebook which doesn’t seem to want to be used anymore since it disconnects from my WiFi as soon as I start typing.  I have many devices that I can use besides my desktop and my Chromebook, but they don’t load websites as well.

My cell phone is, as I like to call it a dumb phone, since it’s not a smart phone.  I would love to buy an android phone from Virgin Mobile so I can do all of my internet stuff while laying in bed, but since I don’t have one, I figured I would go onto the MediaGo Sony Store to see what new game I can download for my PSP.  I had $2.09 available in my account, so I figured I’d find something around that price, and I found WizOrb in the Mini section for $1.99.  That should keep me busy since it’s a new game I’ve never played before.

I loaded the game and played the first bit of it and was a little confused because it basically looks like I’m playing pong, but with better graphics lol.  Speaking of the graphics, it reminds me of The Legend of Zelda for my old Game Boy from 1994, except in color.  It’s like Link’s Awakening to Pong.

That’s just my first impression, I haven’t really gotten to know the game yet so I can’t really form an opinion of the game until I get really into it.  I do look forward to playing it though because it does look like a ton of fun, even though it’s a PSP Mini lol.

I will come back and blog about how much fun I am having when I get to play it more.

Update: This game is really hard lol.  I give them props for difficulty, even at normal pace.

Quest for Glory Collection

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

quest_for_glory_collection

I bought the Quest for Glory collection some time in the late 90’s and I never got to play it because by the time I finally got to it, I had already upgraded to Windows XP and it wasn’t compatible.  I was frustrated to say the least, but I kept the CD’s just in case one day I might be able to play it.  Well, that day has finally arrived.

A few days ago I was flipping through my CD book looking for a CD with a backup file and I saw all of my Sierra games, mind you, I see them all the time and I usually just ignore them and keep looking for what I was searching for.  But this time was different for some reason because I was still in website refurbishing mode.  I figured, the Sierra games were such a huge thing in my life, I might as well add them to my website, and that got me really thinking about playing them again.  I actually tried installing it, but when the installation program was running the tests to see if my computer was fast enough, it ended up crashing.  I guess it was too fast.

I went to Google and typed “Sierra installers” and I found a website which I blogged about and I found and installed the Quest for Glory collection, but there were still problems with it.  There are 4 games in the collection and the first game has 2 versions; EGA and VGA.  I immediately ran the VGA version because that is obviously a better quality, but it crashed when it got to the character selection screen.  I ran the EGA version and that ran fine, but the quality was really horrible, like 1985 horrible lol.  I checked the rest of the games and the 2nd one was fine, the 3rd one wouldn’t even let me see the Sierra logo, it just crashed upon loading the game, and the 4th one loaded without a hitch.

After a few days, I had the realization that if I did decide to play these games, I would have to play the crappy graphics version that was similar to the original King’s Quest games, and there’s nothing wrong with that, I played those crappy graphic versions lol.  But I feel that if I have a good version, why waste time on a crappy one right?  I also had the realization that I would miss out on the third game.  Yesterday I did realize that I could fix the problem.  These installers have a program that allows you to configure the games before you play them since they use DOSBox.  I did that last night by changing a setting, and the 2 that didn’t run, finally run.

Here is the solution if anyone else has an issue with the Sierra installers.  If you go into the start menu and go to Sierra then mouse over to the Quest for Glory collection (or any collection for that matter) then click “Configure Quest for Glory Games.”  It runs sort of like an installation, but it doesn’t install anything.  It asks you which games you want to configure and you check the ones you want and uncheck the ones you don’t want to fix.  The next screen has the options, output is automatically on Overlay, so change it to the next one down which is OpenGL.  That’s it.  If that’s not good enough, change it to the next thing down.  OpenGL works for me, so I’m going with that.  I didn’t change that on all of the games, just those two that crashed on me.  Although, if the other ones run fine, but then crash at one point, then I will probably end up having to change their settings too.

So yeah, here are 2 images which show the EGA and the VGA version of the 1st Quest for Glory game.  The differences are night and day.  You tell me, which would you prefer to play?

QfG1 QfG1vga

My Old Sierra Games

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games2 Comments

Does anyone remember Sierra Online Entertainment?  I certainly do.  How could I ever forget?  They were the very first computer based video games I had ever played, and that was in the 80’s and 90’s.

I played King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella on my old Apple //e that I bought from my brother-in-law in 1989 for $750.  It didn’t have a tower with a motherboard or a hard drive, because it got destroyed before I bought it.  Long story, it was my friends fault lol.  Anyway, I remember that this was the very first game I bought and I had so much fun with it.  I sold the computer a few years later.

In 1997 when I bought my very first Windows-based computer, I wondered if they still sold it, so I looked and found the King’s Quest Collection at a computer store for $20 and I bought it.  I also bought many other Sierra game collections and loved them all.

I have been very hard at work rebuilding my old website to make it new and fresh, and while looking in my CD book for a CD with a backup file, I came across all of my old Sierra games and it occurred to me that maybe I should make a page that showed all of them and mention how much fun I had playing them, so I did.

Shiver’s 2 is one of the games that I couldn’t remember playing.  I have the 2 cd’s, but I just don’t have any memory of playing it.  I tried to install it, but it wouldn’t let me.  Every attempt at installing it resulted in a crash.  I didn’t give up though, I did a Google search looking for Sierra installers and I actually found a website.

New Installers for Sierra Games.  I installed the King’s Quest collection using their installer and it worked.  Although some of the games crashed, not all of them did.  I ran the 4th and 5th game, but the 7th one crashed.  I even had it install Mixed Up Mother Goose and I tried playing it, but it wouldn’t do it.  I think the reason is because it needs to be in 256 colors.  I can only do 16 and 32 bit.  I do remember when I played some of those games in the 90’s that I had to physically change my resolution to 256 colors before I could run the game.  I don’t think I will play them so I uninstalled it.

They had the Shiver’s 2 installer and I was successful in installing it, but here is my issue, when I run the game, it’s mostly video footage and it freezes up on me.  I can hear the sound perfectly, but the video freezes up too much.  It’s basically unplayable with my computer.

There are a few games that I never got to play, like the Police Quest Collection and the Quest for Glory Collection, so I may end up trying to install those and see what happens.  If they play then they play, if they don’t then they don’t.

I did have to install 2 programs for this.  DOSBox and ScummVM.  I’ve heard of DOSBox, but not the ScummVM one.  There is one annoying thing though.  I have avast anti-virus, and every time I tried running one of the games, avast would pop up on my screen saying it had never heard of Sierra, so it was checking it to see if it was a virus.  So I would suggest if you do have these Sierra games and intend to play them and you have avast, you could either wait for it to allow you to run it, or just close avast down.  I mean, you won’t need the internet with these games, usually, so you don’t have to worry about getting a virus.  If it only hassled me once then I’d say let it add that particular game to its list of approved programs, but if it does it every time then it’s annoying, shut it down.

I will try to play those other games and if/when I do, I will update my Sierra page on my website.

Saliraptor Mount in EverQuest 2

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, EverQuestII, GamesLeave a comment

I have been loving my new Saliraptor mount in EverQuest 2.  But the only problem that I have faced was how slow it was.  It says that it only increases ground speed by 60% compared to my mount which was 130 % and because I had them both equipped I was still getting the 130% in my stats section, but I just wasn’t seeing the speed.  The Saliraptor said that it gives you 200% air speed (flying) which for some reason I assumed meant for riding griffins, but then I saw someone flying with a Saliraptor today and it got me thinking, how do I do that?

I went to YouTube and found a video of someone flying with their Saliraptor mount and I was kinda frustrated.  I nearly left a comment asking how they did that, but I remembered that every time I do that, I end up finding the answer somewhere else and then regretting my question because it makes me look like an idiot.

There had to be a way that I could get it to work so I went back to where I got it from and I clicked the Saliraptor that is still there and it gave me instructions.  All I have to do is hit the space bar while running.  Well, I’ve been doing that and I barely make it off the ground.  I thought, how in the heck is this not working?  I decided perhaps my horse was the problem, so I right-clicked him and turned him into a house item and then tried it and I actually flew into the air.  So it was the horse that was hindering me that whole time.

The only reason I kept the horse was because he ran faster than the Saliraptor, but he doesn’t run anywhere near the same speed as the Saliraptor does when he is soaring through the zone.  So my beloved horse is relaxing inside of my house, probably pooping all over the furniture as we speak.  Oh well.

This is not my video, but this is the video that I found earlier today demonstrating how you fly with a Saliraptor.  It’s pretty awesome.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31LBYs8nAso&feature=g-hist

DinoMount in EQ2

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, GamesLeave a comment

I did a few quests in EverQuest 2 today and this was the reward of one of them.  I was surprised that it wasn’t a very difficult quest too because this looks way too cool to be an easy quest.

I’ve been riding a horse that only adds 130% to my running speed.  This adds 60% running speed so I’m a lot slower, but it adds 200% to my flying speed when I assume I am using a griffin to travel.  I guess it is supposed to make that faster.  I’m really not that worried about travel speed since I play a wizard who can cast a spell that brings up a window that you can click to choose where you want to go.

Anyway, I like my dinosaur mount lol.

DC Universe Online

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

I know I am late to this party, but I finally discovered DC Universe Online.  Since I have the station pass, I now have complete access to all of Sony Online Entertainments online PC games such as EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Planetside, DC Universe etc.  I do play EverQuest and EverQuest 2 and I’ve always wanted to play DC Universe and now I finally get that chance.

I thought that since it was the same company that made EQ, I figured the game play would be the same where I just hit the arrows to move forward, backward and so on, but this is way different.  In order for me to move, I have to move the mouse for direction (forward and side to side) while hitting the forward key.  That’s kind of difficult to do considering the mouse is on top of the desk and I use my right hand, and the arrow keys are on the right side of the keyboard in the keyboard tray.  Since my right hand is on the mouse, I have to reach my left hand over to the arrows.  I’m sure there is an easier way, maybe I can hit W or something to move forward, I don’t know.  In EQ and EQ2 you can hold both mouse buttons to move, but with DCUO, the mouse buttons are for fighting, not direction.  It’s very confusing and will take awhile to adjust.

The game is very fun and I’ve already gotten to level 5.  There are only 30 levels in the game, but I think I’m fine with that.  I mean, I don’t plan on playing this game for the rest of my life.

My character is a superman type of character where I can fly and he is fire based, so all of my abilities involve fire, obviously lol.  I can’t run fast like other people who I have seen playing a “Flash” type character, but I’m good with what I have.  I have found that the space bar sends me up in the sky, so when I am about to die, I just start pounding on the space bar to save myself.

This game takes a lot of skill to play, but my main reason for wanting to play it is because I have always wanted to be involved in something where I am a superhero, like Superman.  I would eventually love to create a Wonder Woman type of character, male or female, yes I have that option as a male.  I would also like to try a Batman type character and even an evil villain type of character.

Oh, just in case you are wondering what my character’s name is, it’s Xanapan.  I tried Xanaman, but that was taken, so I just changed the “M” to a “P.”  I know, it’s not very clever, but I’m hooked on the Xana name lol.

Well, I am off to go save some innocent citizens.