Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

100th Blog Post

Posted on by Viljami

I would like to dedicate this post, as it’s the 100th, to describing the path I have went through with this blog so far. Maybe I’ll share some secrets about how I’ve been maintaining this blog or what kinds of strategies I’ve used. Who knows? Are there some secrets? I don’t want to answer that question directly. But keep reading.

This blog is my most recent. It is also the most popular blog I’ve ever have kept updating. My background is in writing lyrics for hiphop. That’s where I picked up writing. I have been writing lyrics since 2001. I have been writing blogs since 2008. I wrote posts for this blog for many years. I didn’t however write so frequently to it. I wrote shorter texts than I write today. So some progression in this mean has been going on.

For six years I was busy with studying my computer science degree. It was a Bachelor’s Degree. I had big dreams of becoming a well paid game developer. This dream hasn’t come true. I did graduate in 2016 but it was a pain in the butt to get a job that would fit my background. After about half a year I decided to try my hand in blogging again. This time I made deeper plans and decided to write one or two posts per week. I wrote that blog in Finnish. I kept writing this blog and it got some visitors. I also added commercials to it but it didn’t become profitable and I didn’t get any income from these advertisements. I had very few visitors compared to this blog that I’m currently writing.

So I got finally a job as a customer service person in a game shop. I worked there for six months. During that period I also wrote to the shops blog. My boss liked my style of writing so I wrote several posts to their website. I also got later another job. While I was working I picked a book from local library that described maintaining a blog. I never had a blog that would have been very successful. The idea was fascinating. It wasn’t all about the opportunity to earn some money but it was rather the opportunity and possibility to create something that might some day be my full time job.

So I read the book, I can’t remember right now what book it exactly was, and took a paper and pen and started designing this new blog. I wrote five articles in advance. This blog would already have some content. I started with a free web host but I moved to paid web host in 12/2020. It has been a fun time writing this blog. I have received comments. I have gained visitors and followers as I have been active in Instagram also. Right now I have almost 600 followers there.

I keep coming up with ideas for posts as I am living my regular life. I try my best to write at least a post per week or at least a post per two weeks. Sometimes I write more and sometimes more rarely. It is easy for me to come up with new ideas but I sometimes forget that I have already handled these topics in some earlier post.

What it comes to gaming I am thinking right now if I should buy Nintendo Game & Watch or one more of those original Xbox gaming consoles that I have already had two. I have made many new purchases that I haven’t had time to get into lately. I have bought many PS4 games as they have been lately on sale. I try to find time for gaming and also for this blog. I have also been thinking about ways to get some income from this site but right now I could say that writing this blog is still only a hobby for me.

How would you feel if there were ads on this website? What topics you would like to read about? Feel free to leave a comment.

About Memory

Posted on by Viljami

Memory is a huge part of how a computer or a gaming console operates. This blog post is my attempt to introduce to you how memory works and what kinds of memory is involved in different gaming devices. So there is basically some temporary memory that doesn’t store so much information. There is also larger memory that stores a lot of information but it isn’t used as frequently. There is also memory that has to be stored for a long time and memory that is used only for a short period of time.

This is basically how computer like systems work. They save data to memory, take user or some other input and make calculations depending on the data that they work with. They present something depending on what the user is doing. This creates the interactive part in video games.

Hard drives are the part of a gaming device that store everything that the game needs. A big part of this is saved games data. Some retro gaming consoles don’t have a hard drive. Hard drives were introduced to game consoles as Xbox was released. With for example the first PlayStation you had to get yourself an external memory card to save your game. Hard disks also store the data even if you turn off your game console.

Today it is common to have hard disks as large as 2 TB. The amount of space on hard disks has been increasing all the time. I remember a time when I bought a hard drive for my PC that had 15 GB. That PC had a 400 MHz processor. As you can figure the technology and performance of computers is advancing all the time. The data that is moving inside devices and also in different kinds of networks is getting larger. Also the size is getting smaller and you definitely can play games with handheld devices and also with your smart phone.

If you would like to get to know more about how computers operate I suggest you pick up a book about how micro processors work. I have some knowledge but I understand that my information isn’t so precise. So if you really want to dive in this topic just make a search in your favorite search engine and type in something like “micro processors free e-book pdf” or something like that. I know that there are many free resources for you to read.

 

Sine Mora EX – A Modern Space Shooter

Posted on by Viljami

I wrote a post some time ago about space shooters. I have played many nice shooters mainly on Mega Drive. So the thought about getting into a more recent game in this genre was interesting. Sine Mora EX is modernized side scrolling two dimensional flying and shooting game. Graphics are clearly today’s graphics, there are some modes to choose from, you can save the game and play with two players cooperatively.

I bought this game, again, from some sale a while ago. The price was very low. I think it was about ten euros. The game has been released in 2017. I checked how long would it take for an average player to get through this game and the website tells me that it takes about two and a half hours. I have played it now for five and a half hours. As I’m not a professional game player it takes some time for me to finish especially this type of game. The genre isn’t one that I would have lots of experience with. But things do get interesting as I delve deeper into what this game has to offer.

Basically your mission is to avoid ammunition that is shot at you and at the same time you have shoot your enemies before they kill you. You get, I think, randomly some updates to your weapon and more time and some other important updates. You can even get a shield for you plane. When you get hit you loose all your weapon upgrades that give your weapon more power and you can then collect them back to you if you are fast enough. There are also updates for your planes speed. Time can run out. You get more time when you kill enemies or get an update. When you get hit you lose also time. You have ten lives and when time finally runs out you lose one life and you have to start from the latest checkpoint.

The game is exciting. It may seem to be a bit repetitive as games in this genre might sometimes be. As I played this game today I spent many hours playing it. So it keeps you well captured while it still is a smaller and more of a casual game. It’s nice to play this type of game that doesn’t require so much work in getting into it and actually learning how to play it. It can be a nice introduction to this whole genre. I hope I have the time to learn to play this game a bit more. In overall this game is good and it delivers a nice shooting experience tweaked into a modern gaming experience.