So I downloaded Robotek HD much against my my first thoughts after reading the reviews, but I was curious. A very simple game that really does not deserve the HD in it’s title, yes the graphics are high enough rez to display well on a larger tablet sized screen; however those graphics are sub-par cartoon for 2 year old quality. The game itself is actually quite fun and I’ve put a good 20 hours or so into it already over the last 4 days (even though it has been on my Notion Ink Adam tablet for close to two and a half months already). The basic concept is that the world has been taken over by computers and you are the last human, you have to hack into all the worlds mainframes and defeat their defenses to take possession of them back.
To defeat the mainframes you have to spin a slot wheel (yes a slot wheel…) there are 3 different wheels to spin and choosing the right one at the right time will determine if you win or lose at any point in the game, sure you can do things differently, but there are key moments where a bad roll can cause you to have a very bad day. Each wheel has three icons, you get to choose the first, the second and third are random, their effects increase if you hit more than one of a kind, and they occur in the order that you received them (starting with the one you pick, it is easy to select it, you get about a 70%/30% shot at the one you want). The Developer relies on you spending money through the in app purchasing system (it uses google check out) to buy your self some VERY minimal advantages at a cost of what I consider to be more than the game is worth if I had to buy it. Without spending money, you find yourself constantly struggling, the farther you climb the greater the gap between your skills and your opponents. The good news is that the system is similar to an Emperor style card game (anyone who played Magic the Gathering will understand), the “droids” get trashed first, THEN your main system can be attacked; however there are certain abilities that will bypass this on the wheel, and when your droids go boom, you can take residual damage.
To quickly give a strategy to use to win, I recommend first putting 1 point (you gain 1 point for skills per level up) in each of the following (preferably in this order):
- Firewall Deflector
- Energy Superboost
- Critical Hit
- Messy Hack
- Repulsor Armor
- Lucky Strike
- Firewall Deflector
- Energy Superboost
- Firewall Deflector
I say this for several reasons, first off, the firewall is the only way to survive once you start fighting systems above your level, without the firewall all your droids will be destroyed before your next turn basically wasting those droids. Next is the Energy Superboost, this decreased the damage your enemies do on their next attack (immediately after the wheel spins) and increases the damage your droids will do for the next attack also. The other options I selected will benefit you in various ways, some more than others and you can pick however you want after level 9. This is not how I did it, as I really had no plan going into the game, since I really had no idea how to play (there is a tutorial and it is short, and only shows you the basics). If I had put less time into the game at this point, I would restart to follow this guide.
The next thing you need to know to survive are these simple tips:
- Round one, summon the Tankbot, he has the most HP and does the most damage (hope for an advanced one)
- Get your firewall up, firewall=life, and you may get a quick hack that steals one of your opponents droids to your side of the battle
- If you hit three of a kind you get another spin, I have seen the computer get 4 spins in a turn an decimate me
- If you have no droids and no firewall, go for a hack, you may get lucky and get a buffer AND a firewall, summoning droids at this point is not helpful, the enemies will just kill them and rank up.
| Developer’s page | http://www.hexage.net |
| AppBrain link – Free | http://www.appbrain.com/app/robotek/net.hexage.robotek.hd |
| AppBrain link – Paid | free game with in game purchases, no ads |
Marketplace direct DL links
| Free Version | https://market.android.com/details?id=net.hexage.robotek.hd | Paid Version |
I guess my might have figured out by the title of this post, that my wife I are expecting. So I have been looking into getting a baby monitor (and 258 other things!) and I’m not sure how I came across it to begin with, but I found a bunch of Baby Monitor applications in the Android Market. This got me to thinking, hey! I have a spare android phone, my wife’s old Samsung Moment and I thought it would be pretty sweet if I can use the Moment as a Baby Monitor that I can view from my HTC Evo 4G or my Wife’s HTC Evo Shift (while she is at work she could check in any time she wanted). I thought this would be fantastic!
So the next issue was to find an app that would let me do this, I only had to go through three (each one monitored, but did not provide video or sound to you, they just sent you text messages or called you) before I found one I liked, BabyCam Monitor by Dooblou, it runs a light weight web server on your phone, that any device with a web browser and Java installed can access. The limitation (and a good security measure in my opinion) is that it hosts it only over wifi and only to the network the wifi is connected to (local IP of the phone… 192.168.1.###), so to access this from the outside world, I would have to setup port redirection on my router enabling my wife to access the BabyCam while she is at work.
I downloaded the demo version and installed it on my Evo to give a spin. I liked the way the demo worked and it’s limitations are that you cannot use higher resolution camera settings (not an issue with the Moment! as the camera on it is a low 3.2mp), you are also limited to black and white only in the demo, the last limitation is/was 20 minutes in the application would stop monitoring. There have been 3 updates to the Demo since I first downloaded it, and now the limitation is 10 minutes (I had considered using the 20 minute demo instead of purchasing it, as I might still end up getting a retail baby monitor). Also in one of the updates is an “experimental” feature “audio!” pretty darn important if you ask me! Previously I believe you could see the sound wave of noises, but not hear them. Well this “experimental” feature worked flawlessly when I finally tested it (getting to that part). The last features of the app I feel a need to mention here, is that you can capture video and still images from the web page (the makers of this app have a prior history with web based camera monitoring software and have available a really good looking video surveillance app, although I have not tried it or looked really hard at it. They learned a few tricks before making the BabyCam Monitor). I do agree with some of the commentors that both of the video monitor apps this company makes are lacking in additional security features (ie password based login for the camera feeds! I have emailed the Developer in regards to this, so I hope it will be added in the future).
The next issue was to get the BabyCam on the Samsung Moment, which currently is not attached to a service plan. So, I spent 2.5 weeks researching rooting and custom Roms for the Samsung Moment, I found a few I liked, including a minimalist Rom that actually cut the size down from the original 160MB (compressed) Samsung Official android 2.0 update (or maybe it was the 1.6 version…) down to a teenie tiny 50MB +/- 2 or 3MB (I’ll check and update this part later). A smaller OS base usually means better performance, and I only need the camera and wifi working anyway!
While I did download 4 or 5 Roms to give a chance to, I only ever got one working, the SDX Froyo EF09 2.2.2 Rom v2.0.1 was the only Rom that would bootup (looks a lot like Android 2.3.3 and runs really fast on this older hardware), the others would all hang in a boot loop after flashing. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that not all Android devices work the same even within the same model. I know people with the HTC Evo 4G that have 2 or 3 or even 4 of them in their homes and they try to flash the same Roms to them and get different results, so I am not too concerned that some of the Roms didn’t work the first 4 attempts to flash them, I just went with the one that did (first try, both times I installed it, it is a prerequisite for one of the ones that did not work).
I then added a couple of useful apps, including Titanium Backup Pro so I could remove parts of the system Rom I don’t need. Basically anything non-internet/wifi and non-camera related, as the phone is not going anywhere or doing anything else, so I fully intend on only keeping the necessary apps loaded, so the OS doesn’t have too much running in the background. I of course also installed BabyCam Monitor Demo to make sure it worked on the Moment and the wifi streaming worked. All went well. I also added iBaby, an app for recording various occurrences with your baby (feeding/diaper changes/growth chart and more).
I’ll be adding reviews/summaries of these three apps to my app list sooner or later. The more I use the Moment BabyCam the more I’ll have to say about the Apps on it! Until then, you’ll have to deal with this and my recommendation that they are worth it. I have contacted the Developer of BabyCam as mentioned above, and received a reply at this time. There are plans to implement password based security soon, and a client/server model for multiple android phones to be used as monitors without having to load a webpage (which I have not tested from my phone yet, but am doubtful it will work as it relies on javascript). I will hold off a bit longer before making the app purchase, as the baby is not due for 3 months and I’d like to make sure non of the improvements break what I want to do with the app.
I’ve been doing a bit of work lately,
- I have a new Rom installed on my HTC Evo, the MikG 2.3 Rom with Sense 2.1+3.0
- I’ve added the poorly placed in the top left corner Google +1 button to the site
- I am going to flash a new Rom on my Notion Ink Adam here in about three hours
- Finally got my Xbox 360 setup so I can get audio and video on my PC monitor (HD TV) and my TV
- Reimaged my laptop, three times… still having issues with it, going to have to spend most of tomorrow on it I fear
- Finally ordered a replacement fan for the top of my Thermaltake PC case, it has been acting up for about 12 months now!
- Not to mention a bunch of housework
All my apps are reinstalled, but not yet configured, Thank you Titanium Backup for helping with that, just bought the Pro License, a bit pricey, but’ll just eat at home this week!
It was either that or the bottom left… haven’t figured out where else to put it with this theme, but I’m looking.
I have to go mow the lawn first, it looks so bad I’ve started singing “Welcome to the Jungle” every time I go outside!
Video has been working for a couple of months, but I couldn’t find the adapter I needed to do the audio, so I bought another yesterday, paid too much for that too..
I hope it fits, the manufacturer claims they are 230mm fans in there now, but when I measured it with my tape measure it was only 203mm (fan size) and about 214mm from end to end of the case opening and I’m afraid I’ll have to remove the Motherboard to replace it…
So, deal with the Google +1 button where it is, I’ll probably not get around to moving it for 3 -12 months (I say that as I have a baby due in less than 4 months), I’ll try and get another 5 or so Android apps posted up this week, a write-up on my Evo and Adam Roms, and maybe I’ll even finally get pictures put up for the apps pages! I did take 383 screen shots on my Adam using the ShootMe app, but they all came out as blank black screens… so I’ll try again later. I’ve also added and updated my Notion Ink Adam Roms page, a LOT the last week or so, now make sure you head over and take a look! Doubt I’ll do the same for my Evo though, as they seem to have things well in hand on their own.
Castle Crusade is a very fun, very simple game that does not have very good graphics, they look poor on my HTC Evo, but look even worse on my Notion Ink Adam. The game has achievements and 7 upgrades that can be purchased 4 or 5 times between levels, also the game comes with three difficulty levels and 10 small levels to play on. Only issue I have is it always wants me to view the tutorial every time I load the app… The goal is to gather resources (lumber) to upgrade your troops and build catapults to destroy your enemies castle before they destroy yours. Some levels also give you the opportunity to capture towers that build archers to further assault your enemies. The towers offer even more upgrades for your units (none of these upgrades carry over from level to level). It is an interesting twist on a “tower defense” style game. This game is also available to play as a flash game on your computer.
Marketplace direct DL links
| Free Version | Paid Version | |
