IA Rhythm Game

I have been keeping an eye on the emerging rhythm game that is obviously designed to be an alternative (or addition in one's collection) to Project DIVA. In this, we get only the one performer, though that is no less than IA (a.k.a. Aria on the Planetes) – but it looks to be quite good and fairly comprehensive, as the following promotional trailer shows.

It's a bit tough to enter the market when the various Project DIVA games are already so well established, and offer the six Crypton vocaloids as performers, as well as a few guest performers in the latest releases; but I wish IA/VT-Colorful every success. Perhaps others will follow, such as Anon and Kanon, or Lapis and Merli, or even one featuring all the BPlats-marketed vocaloids, one day. It's a thought...

Acute, Extreme, Perfect

This is a video of actual game-play from the rhythm game Project Diva Arcade F2. The song is Acute, the setting is Extreme, and the score is Perfect(!)

On top of all that, lucky Kaito gets to perform this with both Miku and Luka, the latter again showing her sheer stage 'presence' which is unequalled. The motion is as close to perfection as current technology permits; and if (more likely 'when') the play-only version of this without the game-play appears, there is no doubt in my mind that it will become one of the top Vocaloid demo pieces, raising the bar yet again...

Colourful IA

It had to happen sooner or later. The success of Project DIVA has shown that a vocaloid-based rhythm game for handhelds is a considerably more popular concept than it might have seemed, viewed from competitors' desks.

Thus is born this new game with distinct similarities to DIVA and its sister game Project MIRAI, featuring IA (a.k.a. Aria On The Planetes), for the PS Vita; and this one-song video gives an idea of what is in store when the game is released at the end of July this year...

Jolly Hockey (Joy)sticks!

This actually surprised me, and looks like great fun! It's the Miku Miku Hockey video game, and is an absolutely charming version of the old bat-and-ball game of yesteryear. You wouldn't think that something so simple and from the past might still have some mileage in it!

I wonder if it will appear in the west one day...

Decorator

This is the intro song for the imminent (but delayed for three weeks for quality improvements to be made) Project Diva F 2nd game. The song, by kz (livetune), features all six Crypton Vocaloids who also appear in the game – which will now appear (all being well) in late March, at least in Japan.

Meanwhile, we can enjoy Decorator, in a typical setting and style of video for this series of games...

AR Vocalo Walk

There's a new Android app that allows you to animate and control twenty animated characters – essentially chibi versions of various vocaloids – to get them to walk around. Only one can be controlled at a time, and to switch control from one character to another one has to 'tap' the wanted character, as demonstrated in the clip..

Although it's obviously fun, I think it probably has only a relatively short-term appeal. We shall see. Anyway, well done to daniwell, no less, for producing this and making it freely available...

Project Mirai 2 in action

If you wondered what the fuss has been about regarding SEGA's Project DIVA and Project Mirai, perhaps this hands-on demonstration of the latter (now at version 2) should give a fairly good indication of these games' appeal.

This type of rhythm-matching game won't appeal to everyone, but it does have a lot of charm in the Vocaloid style and even I am starting to feel that I wouldn't mind having a go myself. Stick with the video, as it takes the player a couple of minutes to get sorted out and into the game proper. From then on, it's really quite a lot of fun, especially when Mikudayo pops up unexpectedly...

Addictive New Game

This game, Vocalo-Dama, is just out in Japan, and hopefully elsewhere in the world in due course – though this isn't guaranteed. It is simple, but claimed to be "addictive", and is for iPhone and iPad only. It seems to be something of a branching out for Yamaha, who as far as I know have never produced any games before –  but then again, what do we in the west know of their product range for the home market? I suspect relatively little.

The idea is to slide the coloured rising balls in seven columns into the column with the same colour at its top. If the colours match, Miku sings to you.  It reminded me straight away of the seven columns above the stage at the Kansai concert earlier this year, in which text often rose up in a similar way.

Anyway, it's all shown in this short video (hat-tip to Vocaloidism for the heads-up on this)...

Make Miku Dance

JohnSu has created a simple (and cute!) Miku dancing program in Flash, that lets you control the little character's basic body movement – sway – by mouse movement. There are several backgrounds you can pick, lip-sync – it doesn't have any sound itself, so that needs to be run separately – you can set key binding for the other controls, and it's all simple, happy fun.

Here's a short video to show what can be done with Halfne Miku Studio, as he has called the program. I do like the giant leeks turned inward to form a kind of arch effect.

UPDATE: There are now dozens of examples of this program's use here. This one (below) is still the original demo, though...

Project DIVA F arrives!

Well, in North America anyway, as of a few hours ago. This PlayStation-3 game will appear on PlayStation Network Europe a week from now, on 4 September 2013. Here is the official announcement from SEGA.

Here's an under-3 minute trailer. Do note the warning at the atart – though you'd have to be able to understand Japanese to need to worry yourself about most of it...

Music Girl Miku App in English

This is becoming available during this coming day (it's all about local timezones 'when' it will appear). See here for the details and link to this app for Apple's iOS; and below is the Japanese demo video: there isn't yet an English version of this.

Miku dances to music you play on your iPhone or iPad Touch, and you can interact with her in several ways, from getting her to watch your touch on the device to answering simple quiz questions. The more of this you do, the more goodies become available for download, such as different outfits.

It actually looks like fun, and I'd certainly get it if I had an Apple 'phone or tablet. There is a nominal cost of $4 (less than £3): it is essentially free anyway, just needing a small charge to cover the overseas admin...

Project DIVA Arcade Teaser

This short video was uploaded by SEGA just yesterday.

Nice long flowing dress for Miku in the first segment, then the wonderful Deep Sea Miku in the second half. It doesn't get all that much better than this...

Project DIVA F trailer

Just over a minute to briefly introduce the game to its potential western audiences...

Project Diva F Coming to the West

Yes, it's happening, as SEGA announce here. This will be the full version for the PlayStation 3 and Network (PSN), rather than the technically more restricted 'f' (lower case!) version for the PS Vita. With 38 songs, over 90 costumes and 100-plus accessories, there's lots to play for (and just to play) in the now-classic game in its latest incarnation.

I have to admit that I am tempted myself, even though I don't (yet) have a PlayStation, and despite my encroaching age and health related physical limitations. I have until August to make even a preliminary decision (if I want to be one of the first in the USA and Europe to get this), so there's no desperate rush; but it does sound very interesting!

Project Mirai

This is a variation on the Project Diva game, this time featuring what I call the 'diminutives' of the six Crypton vocaloid characters: Meiko, Kaito, Miku, Luka, Rin and Len. I do not know whether this will follow the original game to the West if that goes ahead, as looks very possible.

Although it's not really my type of thing, I have to say that it is very well done and at top quality, as this introductory video (with no actual game-play) from Sega shows. No doubt it will be hugely popular, as the chibi-style characters already are and have been for a few years now...

Nyan Cat

I happened to notice that local (to me) twitterers were discussing an on-line game called Nyan Cat – a name I immediately recognised. It was therefore no surprise, when I looked it up and visited the site, to find Daniwell's song for (and performed by) Miku NyaNyaNya as its background music.

It is good to discover that the Vocaloid scene is penetrating into the Medway consciousness, one way or another. Whichever way that might be, it gives me the perfect excuse to post this...

Project Diva-F

Yes, the new version of the vocaloid game for PlayStation-3 and PSP now reaches new heights as illustrated in this video, which I first spotted about ten days ago but didn't feature then as (a) it was still more than a month away from its release date (7 March 2013) and (b) is only in Japanese and not even being made available anywhere else.

Check out the video, though, for some previews of new costumes, hairstyles (and tinits!) and 'stages' that no doubt will appear in another wave of videos. As always, when that happens I shall look for any particularly good ones to showcase here, over a period of time.

Also, for anyone sufficiently dedicated, it is now just about possible to pre-order from one of the Japanese outlets and arrange shipping to your part of the world. Then the task ahead will be to overcome the language barrier...

Dress-up Game

This game is good fun, and has been very well done, with CBeebies' Sid and Rebecca reacting appropriately to every garment you place on them. These include hats/crowns/tiaras, tops/dresses and trousers/skirts.

You can take a snapshot of the finished results, like those of mine that I have included here.

Favourite Simple Game

Back in the days when a chap ('Bill R') and I ran the DTI Computer Club, Bill brought in a game that was simply a signalling exercise based on a seven-hour shift at Kings Cross railway station in London.

On the BBC Micro this involved a track display screen, switchable to/from a loco yard screen, and operated in four basic colours (Mode 1 on the Beeb) of black, white, yellow and red.

It was very effective, and not all that frenetic – though it does have its moments at certain times during the shift. Being judged Excellent, let alone Outstanding, wasn't exactly easy to achieve, despite the deceptively straightforward nature of the game and its sometimes seemingly leisurely pace.

It was really all about locomotives: getting the right type attached to outgoing trains, getting the locos that brought the trains in subsequently out of the platforms and (in most instances) to the station's loco yard for refuelling. The judgment on one's performance was based around timekeeping – essentially, getting trains out on time, and not keeping them waiting to come in from elsewhere on either of the 'up' lines (Up Fast and Up Slow). Although the slow line arrivals always keep to time, there are random early and late arrivals of various time-shifts on the Up Fast (UF) track.

Come forward several years and Acorn's Archimedes computer and its successors supplanted the old BBC Micros for most purposes (there are still some Beebs running factory machinery and doing other jobs even today). I was delighted when The Data Store in Bromley released an updated version of the KingsX game to run in the newer computers' desktop, fully multi-tasking, and all in one display...

The loco yard now appears at the bottom-right of the display area, rather than in a separate screen as it had to in the old Beeb version. From this we can see a few of the complications.

For example, the West Bay (WB) where the Motorail from time to time asks for a shunting locomotive (Class 31) to take some coaches to the Ferme Park depot near Finsbury Park. The loco Hold point (H) causes a blockage of the Up Slow (US) line every single time a loco moves to or from that point. It takes three minutes (the game advances in half-minute 'jumps' at ten times real life speed, i.e. every three seconds) for a loco to get to the Hold point from a platform or the yard, so it's quite an impediment.

On top of this, the occasional parcels train needs to go into platform 1, so that has to be clear of stock and locos in time for their arrivals – and those trains can (and often do) run early or late, sometimes by quite a few minutes.

The two suburban services – half-hourly to Royston and the hourly semi-fast – have to go on platforms 9 and 10 (and nothing else can go on either of those platforms). Sometimes an incoming train doesn't form an outgoing service, but after a while asks for a (shunting) loco to take it to the depot.

Thus we end up with a surprisingly complex scenario; and at certain times during the simulated work-shift it becomes just about impossible to keep to timetable, even when everything arrives on time thus creating no deviations from a nominal pattern. For example, at just after 9 am, a situation arises whereby there just isn't any platform available for an incoming train until after it has been held up at a red signal outside the station.

There is no way around this; and even solving that with a minimal delay then, of necessity, holds up the outgoing semi-fast suburban service at 0908 hrs, which ends up departing a minute late. There are a couple of other sticky moments in a similar vein; and several periods when, because of other movements, it is very difficult to get all the needed locomotives out of the yard and attached to trains in time for their scheduled departures.

Overall, this relatively simple simulation is actually quite a challenge. A hugely bigger such game, called simply Signal Box, is vast by comparison, and unless one has a display some 4,000 pixels wide will always involve sideways scrolling so one never gets an all-at-once view of what is going on. I can't really do that one, I have found.

Perhaps if someone were to produce something in between that will fit on a modern HD (1,920 pixels wide) display, that might be manageable. In the meantime, I still have an occasional go at KingsX, at which I am now usually rated as Outstanding!