Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Dreams do come true when you aim for it



A lot of good things happend these last few months.

I graduated from University with honour which is really an prestige to me. And I'm really glad that my internship partner also graduated with honour.

The other good thing is that I have found a great job in the game industrie. I am working as a game programmer at www.playlogicinternational.com working on a next gen title.
Working at a game company means that all your work is classified untill the title is released. Because of that I don't think that I will update this blog anytime soon. I wanted to show my work with this blog, so that I could get a job in the game industrie and it did help. It has served it's purpose well.

Something that I want to share is the private game project that I was working on in previous posts. It was already finished somewhere in May. My university graded a 9 for the project.
I went to different game companies and showed them this work of mine and they were all very positive about it. It is always nice to be able to show people your work. Your own work says more than a million words :p
The game is called Fighter Skies and can be downloaded HERE


Fighter Skies

Fighter Skies related posts:
- New private game project
- Collecting graphics for my new game project
- Scrolling map

I'm always open for comments
Kar Ching

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Scrolling map

Related posts:
- New private game project
- Collecting graphics for my new game project
- Dreams due come true

I'm still working on my top down scrolling shooter. Last weekend I decided to make the background map for my game. There is google maps with it's satellite photo's of the world, so I thought why not make a scrolling map from images of google maps. How did I do it? Simple, go to the google maps site and find a place / map that is suited. Of course chose satellite to get real images. I wanted some water in my background, so I made my background from images of the province Zeeland in the Netherlands. When you have the right location "Print Screen" and voila you have an image. You might want to cut the background image out of the "shot" by editing it in photoshop (or paint). Than go back to google maps and move the map. By pressing the "up" key you will move the map up, perfect if you don't want to change in the horizontal (x) direction. Move your map up and make a shot again, do the entire process. Make sure that you keep a small part of the previous map in your new map, so when you are going to attach them they will fit nicely. After shooting images it's time to attach the lose map images to get 1 big map image.

In my case, I was going a little far with it. I made 43 map images. Attaching the images together I had a big map of 626 x 14200 pixels. When you are working in photoshop, you might want to use the "save for web ..." option to make the quality lower and the file size smaller. My map was 15 mb but with "save for web ...", jpg, low quality it went from 15 mb to 700 kb!

I'm using the map in my game now. I had cut it up in 6 pieces because Flash/actionscript can't work with movie clips, which are more then 2500 pixels in width / height.

Here is the map, might be useful for someone who want to save the hours of print screens, cutting and attaching work ^_^


hmmm...... blogspot has decreased the image size with 10 fold

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

My CV (English version)

CURICULLUM VITAE

Personal data

Name: Chan, Kar Ching

Address: Vermeerplantsoen 128
5151 WZ Drunen
the
Netherlands

Phone Tel: +31 (0)416-377259

Mobile Tel: 06-48731926

E-mail address: karching@hotmail.com

Place and date of birth: Rhenen 14-08-1985

Marital status: Single

Nationality: Dutch

Gender: M

Website: http://kcchans.blogspot.com/

Education

· September 2003 – present
Computer science, specialised in Multimedia, at the Avans University in Den Bosch.

· September 1997 – June 2003
High school (Atheneum in Dutch), direction Nature & Technology, at the
‘d Oultremont high school in Drunen.

· October 1995 – June 2000
Chinese language course at the foundation Yu Hua Chinese school in Den Bosch.

Professional experience

· November 2006 – present
Game developer / programmer internship at Fantazm.com.
Fantazm is specialised in web advertisement / casual games.
The games which I worked on, I was responsible for the development and programming of the game play. For the games see http://kcchans.blogspot.com/
I am also working on a tracking system to trace data from the game and the player. The traced data will be stored in a database and shown on a website.

· August 2005 – November 2006
Software test engineer at
Siemens VDO Trading B.V.
Infotainment Solutions
Development Center Eindhoven

I was responsible for designing test specifications and functional testing of new navigation, information and entertainment software. Discover errors in the software and report them clearly, fully in English. I have done these tasks with great success.
The first 5 months, I worked as an intern at Siemens VDO. After the internship, I have been asked by Siemens VDO to work there as a part-timer, knowing that I still have to finish my study. This is an exceptional occurrence at Siemens VDO Eindhoven, because they have never contracted a student to work as a part-timer before.

· May 2000 – January 2007
I worked at a market gardening company in Haarsteeg.

· September 2000 – June 2003
I worked as a bartender at a Chinese restaurant in Drunen.

Skills

· Game development, see http://kcchans.blogspot.com/ for the games.
- I have developed a few games at Fantazm in Flash / actionscript.
- Since April 2007, 3 friends and I are working on a new game project. The game will be a multi player online 2D shooter and it will be developed in C-sharp.
- Since March 2007, I am working on a private game project. The game will be developed in Flash / actionscript and it will be a top down scrolling shooter.
- In the period February 2006 – June 2006, with a team of only 4 men (including myself), we developed a top down scrolling shooter game called Last Haeven in JAVA as an assignment of the Avans University. Of all the games that were developed by the multimedia students at the
Avans University, this game got the highest grade.

· Languages
Fluent in the Dutch and English language, basic in the Chinese, German, French and Japanese language.

· Computers
Full knowledge of Windows XP and basic knowledge of DOS and UNIX. Some technical (hardware) knowledge of computers.

· Programming languages
- Object Orient modulation and programming in the languages:
- JAVA,
- C++,
-
Delphi,
- Actionscript.

· Web script languages
- HTML
- JAVASCRIPT
- XML
- CSS
- PHP

· Database language
- SQL

· Multimedia software
- Macromedia Flash
- Adobe Photoshop
- Pinnacle Studio
- Avid Xpress

· Driving license
I poses driving license B (passenger car).

· Strong qualities
Ambitious, hard worker, focused, team player, focused on results and solutions, good social and communication skills, positive mentality, quick learner, a lot of knowledge about old and new video games.

Hobby’s

· Play video games

· Japanese animation

· Going out with friends

· Sport, soccer and basketball

· Building and painting Japanese animation and game characters model kits

· Collecting Japanese animation and game character figures and statues

· Visiting computer, games, comics, collectors and Japanese animation conventions.

My CV (Dutch version)

CURICULLUM VITAE

Persoonlijke gegevens

Naam: Chan, Kar Ching

Straat: Vermeerplantsoen 128

Postcode, woonplaats: 5151 WZ Drunen

Telefoon nummer: 0416-377259

Mobiel nummer: 06-48731926

E-mail adres: karching@hotmail.com

Geboortedatum: 14-08-1985

Geboorteplaats: Rhenen

Burgerlijke staat: Ongehuwd

Nationaliteit: Nederlands

Geslacht: M

Website: kcchans.blogspot.com

Opleiding

  • september 2003 - Heden
    Hogere Informatica, specialisatie richting Multimedia, aan de Avans Hogeschool in Den Bosch
  • september 1997 - juni 2003
    Atheneumopleiding, richting Natuur & Techniek aan het ‘d Oultremont college in Drunen
  • oktober 1995 - juni 2000
    Chinese taalopleiding aan de Stichting Yu Hua Chinese school in Den Bosch

Werkervaring

  • november 2006 – heden
    Game programmeur / developer stagiair bij
    fantazm.com dat gespecialiseerd is in web advertentie / casual games.
    Voor de games waar ik aan gewerkt heb, was ik verantwoordelijk voor het programmeren en uitwerken van de game play. Voor de games zie kcchans.blogspot.com.
    Verder werk ik aan een trackingssysteem dat data van de games en de spelers traceert in een database en de verzamelde data weergeeft in een website.

  • augustus 2005 - november 2006
    Software Test Engineer bij
    Siemens VDO Trading B.V.
    Infotainment Solutions
    Development Center Eindhoven

    Het ontwerpen van testspecificaties en functioneel testen van nieuwe navigatie, informatie en entertainment software. Fouten in de software ontdekken en deze helder en duidelijk omschrijven, volledig in het Engels. Deze taken heb ik met veel succes uitgevoerd.
    Ik heb bij Siemens VDO 5 maanden stage gelopen. Vervolgens ben ik door Siemens VDO gevraagd om als parttimer te blijven werken, wetend dat ik mijn opleiding nog moest afmaken. Dit is een uitzonderlijke gebeurtenis bij Siemens VDO Eindhoven, omdat zij nog nooit eerder een student als parttimer hebben aangenomen.
    Referenties: op aanvraag

  • mei 2000 – januari 2007
    Medewerker bij een tuindersbedrijf in Haarsteeg

  • september 2000 - juni 2003
    Barkeeper bij een Chinees restaurant in Drunen

Vaardigheden

  • Game ontwerpen en realiseren, zie kcchans.blogspot.com voor de games.
    - Enkele games ontwikkeld bij Fantazm.com in Flash / actionscript.
    - Sinds april 2007 ben ik met 3 vrienden begonnen aan een nieuw game project. De game zal een online multiplayer 2D shooter worden, dat geprogrammeerd wordt in C-sharp.
    - Sinds maart 2007 ben ik zelf bezig met een eigen game project. De game wordt gemaakt in Flash / actionscript en het is een top down scrolling shooter game.
    - In de periode februari 2006 t/m juni 2006 heb ik voor de Avans Hogeschool een computerspel gemaakt in de programmeertaal JAVA. Met een projectgroep van 4 man (inclusief mezelf) heb ik een groot aandeel gehad in het ontwerpen en realiseren van het spel ‘Last Haeven’. Dit spel heeft de beste beoordeling gehad van de gehele multimedia opleiding op de Avans Hogeschool.
  • Talen
    Volledige kennis van de Nederlandse en Engelse taal. Redelijke kennis van de Chinese, Duitse, Franse en Japanse taal.
  • Computerervaring
    Volledige kennis van Windows XP en aardige technische kennis van computers. Redelijke kennis van DOS en UNIX.
  • Programmeertalen, object georiĆ«nteerd moduleren en programmeren in:
    JAVA, C++, Delphi en Actionscript
  • Webscript talen
    HTML, JAVASCRIPT, XML, CSS and PHP
  • Databasetalen
    SQL
  • Multimedia software
    - Macromedia Flash
    - Adobe Photoshop
    - Pinnacle Studio
    - Avid Xpress
  • Rijbewijzen
    In het bezit van Rijbewijs B
  • Sterke Eigenschappen
    Ambitieus, harde werker, geconcentreerd bezig, kan goed samenwerken, teamplayer, resultaat en oplossing gericht, goede sociale en communicatieve vaardigheden, positieve instelling, ik leer dingen snel, veel kennis van oude en nieuwe video games.


Hobby’s

· Spelen van videogames

· Bekijken van Japanse animatie, anime

· Uitgaan met vrienden

· Sporten, basketbal, voetbal

· Bouwen en schilderen van Japanse animatie modelkits

· Verzamelen van Japanse animatie en games figuren en beeldjes

· Bezoeken van computer, strips (comics), verzamelaars en Japanse animatie beurzen

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Last Haeven



Last Haeven (yes Haeven and not Heaven :p) is my first relatively big game, which was made in assignment of my Avans university. The game was a big success, my team and I got the highest grades for Last Haeven. The game was created in the period February '06 - June '06.

I build this game with only 3 students/friends:
- Michiel Synhaeve
- Bram Smulders
- Roy van der Vorst

At the Avans university, all the multi media specialized students need to do the game project. You get 5 months to create a game: create a game concept and fully work it out to a playable game. The only requirements were:
- the game needs to be build in JAVA,
- the game needs to have different levels,
- the game needs to have some kind of character development,
- keep the game 2d (5 months is not enough to develop a 3d game).


Level background

The teachers make up the teams, each team will make their own game. At that time there were 6 teams, so 6 games to be developed. From the first day of the game project, my team was different. Each team consisted of 6 or more members. On paper my team also had 6 members, but on the first day of the project, 2 members couldn't do the game project. So my team was left with only 4 members. Knowing that, the teachers were planning to split the team and put each member on a other team. It was our own decision to keep the team and to do the entire project with only 4 men.

During the project each team had to do presentations showing their progress and demo's of the game. With only 4 men, my team always had the best progress and results. Already from the 2nd month of the project, everyone (teachers and students) expected that my team would develop the best game.

With only 4 men we chose an old game concept to work with, the top down shooter (like space invaders). Our final concept was based on a few games, Sonic wings (Aero fighters), Warning forever and Ikaruga. Especially the game play of Ikaruga had a big influence in Last Haeven. In Ikaruga an enemy can be black or white and fire black or white projectiles. The players ship can change from black to white and vise versa. By doing so the player can absorb the projectiles of the same color and fill a meter to perform a special. The player could only be destroyed by projectiles of the opposite color. We used this concept for Last Haeven.


Sonic wings


Warning forever


Ikaruga

The final concept was a top down scrolling shooter with a modified Ikuragua game play and 8 levels with enemies and a cool (big) bosses. A friend and I (50% of the team) are big anime fans so we build in some anime like bosses: Meteor (gundam seed), Mobius Zero (gundam seed), a space ship from the anime Vandread and Macross from Macross (Robotech in the US) .
Also the players ship was based on a spaceship from the anime Crest of the stars.
One member (Roy) of the team was good in 3D Max, so we gave him some pics of the anime ships and he made a 3D model, black and white version of them. We used the 3D models in Last Haeven, making the game more 3D like, even tho the game play is fully 2D.



Meteor from Gundam Seed


Mobius Zero from gundam Seed


Ship from Vandread


Macross


The players ship based on a spaceship from the anime Crest of the stars

I even used different scenes from anime series to create cut scenes for the game. The plan was to do an anime cut scene for every boss, but I only had time to create 2.


Intro movie of Last Haeven, the visuals are from the anime Crest of the stars and the song...... I forgot from which anime OST.


Mobius zero boss intro, visuals from gundam seed and the song is from the anime movie Appleseed OST (boom boom satellites - Dive for you), but since we only had 2 movies this movie was put at the end of the game. Like an reward to the player for finishing the game.


With a team of only 4 men, I was involved with almost any aspect of the game from designing, sound choice, cut scenes to coding and testing. I programmed the enemies and most of the bosses, their patterns of moving and shooting, the different types of projectiles, the collision detection, a combo counter etc.
We all have spend a lot of time in this game. For me, even tho it was an assignment for the uni, I loved working on this project. I didn't mind working a lot at home and missing some hours of sleep for this project. The game project was the nicest project that I had to do for the uni.

At the end of the game project, the game had:
- 2 movies ( one intro and 1 boss movie),
- 5 levels with enemies and bosses, background music and scrolling map,
- a combo/kills counter with voices from quake 3 and unreal tournament,
- a level editor where we could drag and drop enemies on the map and generate the level with an .xml file.
- character / spaceship development at the end of each level, for the kills the player gained a rank and the ships weapons would be upgraded.

The game was almost complete except for the movies. The original concept had 8 levels, but we only did 5, so that we could work on other things for the game.

Of all the games that were made by the teams, our game was the most complete and had the best and nicest game play of them all. We got a 9 (out of 10) for the entire game project and the best of all, the experience of creating a game out of nothing.

There is only one problem with the game. The game is build in JAVA, not the most ideal language to write a game in -_-. To playback movies and music we used the JMF, JAVA Media Framework. To play the game,the pc needs the JRE, JAVA Runtime Environment and the JMF installed and configured. On the pcs, which we used to develop the game, the game runs fine, but on some pcs the movie and background music wouldn't playback. Probably something with the JMF. Last Haeven without it's background music, just isn't the experience that we want to give to the players.

Looking back at it now, we really did an excellent job. With only 4 men we managed to build the best and most complete game. It's something I'm really proud of.

I won't put this game online, because of the problem I mentioned earlier (maybe someday when the problem is solved). To give an impression of the game, I made a game play movie of it (playing it on my own pc where the problem doesn't occur).


Last Haeven game play movie, the video capturing tool that I used made the framerate of the game slower, so the game runs smoother normally ^_^



Saturday, April 7, 2007

Shopping mania game



PLAY THE GAME HERE

The game shopping mania was the first game, which I have worked on, that went live. The game was made and released for last years('06) X-mas by Fantazm. At that time I was working on this game as a freelancer at Fantazm (I'm currently doing my graduation internship there).

Shopping mania is a casual game. In the game you are a helper elf of Santa. Your goal is to collect the presents that are dropped by the people in the shopping mall, but you have to avoid the people that are doing their x-mas sale.

I programmed most of the game play in this game. The controls and movements of the main character, the map movement, the collision detection, the presents etc.

The price that players could win was the brand new Nintendo Wii. The Wii was given to the player which had the highest score at January 31 '07. The person who won the Wii had an impressive score of almost 2.5 million. Even tho I have worked on this game, my max score isn't even near 500 k.

The game can still be played HERE. There is no price to win at the moment though.


The Main menu


Help Santa by collecting the presents


There are different presents to collect

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Another game released by Fantazm



PLAY THE GAME HERE

Another game is released by Fantazm (the company where I'm doing my internship). The game is created for real estate agents to promote their event. I have spend a few days, programming and bug fixing, on this game. The game play of the game is build on the game engine which I have worked on for a big part.
It's a casual game with fairly easy goals. You have to collect keys and prevent collision with other people. The faster you collect the keys the more bonus points you get. An easy game if you ask me. The price that players can win is sweet though, a LCD TV for the player who has the highest score. But yet again it's only for dutch people and people who weren't involved with the creation of the game ( -_-).

The game can be played HERE



Collect the keys quickly without colliding with other people


Each level has it's own map

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Collecting and editing graphics for my private game project


Akuma special from street Fighter

Related posts:
- New private game project
- Scrolling map
- Dreams due come true

Like I said in previous posts, I'm working on a private game project of my own. The coding and all is going well. I can program stuff and design the game play as I want, but the thing is the visual side of my game. To be able to program and design things, but not having the visual to back it up, is an issue. The graphics and animations that I'm using now are mostly borrowed (ripped) from other games. I'm talking about sprite, which can be found on the Internet. A great site to get sprites from is the Sprite Database

I don't really have much choice but to get graphics and animation from others. I just don't have the skills (yet) to create nice visuals, worthy to be in my game. Because of this the game play will be restricted by the visuals that I can find. So far I have found the graphics for the important game play parts, e.g. bullet animations, explosions, etc.

Finding graphics and editing them has taken at least as much time as programming them. I often find nice graphics, but usually they need to be edited e.g. an object which should be removed, or the wrong color and size etc. To edit graphics it requires time, patience and the right tools. I have been editing graphics these last few days in Photoshop. I know the basics of Photoshop, but these last few days I have learned some new tricks. One of the hardest thing that I did was removing Chun-li from her super special.


Chun-li sprites, click on the pic for a bigger pic

I want to use her super special as a bomb in my game, but to do so I had to remove Chun-li from the animation as if she was never there. Before I started, I thought that it would be to difficult to do so, but the experience that I would get, would definitely be useful. So I started with the Chun-li removal process. It toke some time (half a day) and effort but it was worth it :p.






The results of the Chun-li removal process. Like she was never there ^_^

By doing this I have definitely learned some new Photoshop skills. Useful skills that I will use for editing other visuals. If any one wants to know how I did it, just let me know and I'll write an tutorial about it.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Dr. Oetker game



PLAY THE GAME HERE

I have worked on the Dr. Oetker game at the company where I'm doing my internship. This game went live today. The game is about making food for your friends. The faster you do it the more points you get and of course making the right food for your friends will give you extra points.
I programmed, coded almost the entire gameplay: the steps that should be done to make all different foods, the actions that a player can do, the movement of the friends and their actions etc.
This game is a casual game. Not really my type of game (I prefer gamers games), but it's always nice to see a game go live, which I have worked on.
The game can be played at the Dutch Dr. Oetker site
There are prices to win, Dr. Oetker will give away a Dr. Oetker prize package to the player with the best score every week (only for Dutch people tho -_-).



Make delicious food for your friends and gain points.

O yeah, my voice is in this game. If you hear a guy say "chow" when he leaves, that's my voice of course it's edited a little ^_^

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

New private game project

Related posts:
- Collecting graphics for my new game project
- Scrolling map
- Dreams due come true

My plan was to update this blog as much as possible, but free time is hard to find lately. Last week I heard from my university that I was missing a few ECTS (credit transfers) points and I need those if I want to graduate in June. To get those points I can follow a course of my choice or do some other projects. Since I'm on internship at the moment, so I don't have time to follow course and I don't want to. I have chosen to do a project of my own. I going to make my own game. The reason is because with the game I can get the ECTS points and I can put the game in my CV as work of my own.

I always wanted to make a game of my own, but to do it in my free time.... Now i have forced myself to make a game in my free time. Till now I've always created games in a small team, so it's going to be a new experience to create the game on my own.
The game is going to be made in flash, actionscript 2.0 and it's going to be a 2d top down shooter for 2 players.

I've been working on the project for a week now and it's going well. Spending my free time on this game was worth it so far. I learned a lot of new stuff about flash. I already have my 2 players, some fire animations, most of them are sprites ripped from other games (it would be nice if I had the skills to draw my own graphics, but my drawing skills aren't good enough, so I found some cool sprites at the Sprite Database), advanced collision detection (I have to thank gskinner for that) and displacement filter to add some cool graphics (I found this nice tutorial).

I'm gonna try to make it a 1 of a kind game. I have some nice ideas that I have never seen in other games before. This game will definitely be different from any other 2d top down shooter if I can work out those ideas.

The game doesn't have a name yet (I haven't thought about it yet and won't until the game is almost finished).

Some screenshots


Players can load up there weapon like Megaman/Rockman


Using the T shaped object to test the advanced collision detection


A special borrowed from another game. If you are a real gamer you know who uses this special.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

My gaming experience

My gaming experience goes way back to the early 90's.

Atari 2600
The first game console that I have played is the atari 2600. One of my best friends had the console. At that time the atari 2600 was already at it's end, but as a kid playing your first video games, it's an awesome experience. I played classic games like pong, pacman, space invaders etc. They aren't interesting for gamers these days, but for me, I'm glad that I have played them. The experience might come in handy later on in the game developers world.












Image of the atari 2600

NES
After the atari 2600, the next game console I played was the Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES. With it's 8 bit graphics and more advanced games, it was a major difference compared to the atari 2600. At that time a lot of friends of mine had the NES and to play as much new NES games as possible we all (our parents) bought different games, played them and lend them out to eachother. I played games like Mario, double dragon, duck hunt, megaman, castlevania, battle toads, kirby etc. Great fun and unique experience.

















Image of the Nintendo Entertainment System


Gameboy
I got the Nintendo Gameboy from my uncle and aunty. One of the best gift you can get when you are a kid. The games weren't that much different than the games on the NES, but it was nice that you could keep on playing when you were not at home.













Image of the Nintendo Gameboy


SNES
A few years later I (and my 2 brothers and my mam) went to Hong Kong to visit my family. My older cousin had a SNES with a lot of games. The SNES was the new console, better graphics, more advanced games. My brothers and I spend days with my cousin to play on the SNES. My mam bought the SNES in HK and we toke it back to the Netherlands. Without knowing that the SNES game cartridge was different for each region. Europe, Asia and US had their own cartridges and SNES console. The European and Asian SNES look the same except for their cartridge, but the US SNES looks completely different and we had the US SNES -_-. Back than I learned a valuable lesson about consoles and regions. In the Netherlands I could only get new games at stores that would sell import games.
I still have played a lot of games on the
SNES. The game genres that were new to me then were
1 on 1 fighting and role playing games. I played games like Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, Dragonball Z, Zelda, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger (still one of the best games ever made) etc. The experience I got from the new
gameplay really was superb.

Image the US SNES

Image the European / Asian SNES


PC
While I had the SNES some friends of mine had a pc at home. On the pc, friends of mine had games like Duke Nukem, Worms, Wolfenstein, Wacky Wheels etc. It was on the pc where I saw nice 3D graphics for the first time. The SNES has Star Fox which is in 3D, but it didn't look as good as the first virtua fighter or Panzer Dragoon. I also played Real Time Strategy games like Warcraft and Command and Conquer. Racing games like Need for Speed and Test drive. 1st person shooters like Duke Nukem 3D, Quake. One of the best gaming experience I've had was playing games on your own local network with friends. Games like, C&C Red Alert, Diablo, Quake, Need for speed etc your own lan party.
The graphics on the PC were amazing, especially with the first 3D graphic VooDoo cards. From regular pc rendered to 3D graphics is still the biggest visual jump forward I have ever seen. The PC was the reason why I didn't want a N64 or playstation. There were just so many great games on the PC. And some of the populair games of the playstation were also released on the PC, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid.
In all those years I played a lot of PC games. Some friends stayed with consoles, so when I was at their place, I could always play on the N64, dreamcast or playstation.

Gamecube
It was early 2002 when my brother and I bought the gamecube. We pre-orderd the cube to have it on the first day of release. The first game we bought was the new Sonic. Only playing it for a few houres, we toke the game back to the shop switched it with the 1 on1 fighting game Bloody Roar. In 2002 my brother and I bought like 10 games for the cube, but most of them weren't interesting enough for me. Looking back at it now, 20 cube games later, I still don't like the cube that much except for a few games, the resident evil series, Smash Brothers. The cube just missed the action genre that other consoles did have.


Playstation 2
In 2003, I went back to Hong Kong to visit my family again. It was in HK where I knew that I should have bought a playstation 2 instead of a cube. The playstation 2 had the games that were not on the pc nor on the cube. Games like Devil May Cry, Tekken, pro evolution soccer series, God of War, Metal Gear Solid series, lots of rpg's. Knowing that I own a cube I just had to get that PS2. Up till now I still haven't regret it. It's one of the best buy's I have done. 4 years later and the PS2 is still going strong. In all these years great games were released for the PS2.