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Category: English Post (Page 13 of 97)

Digital pack DEMON COLLECTION review

2019-12-21 / / 0 Comments

This week I’m reviewing not one, but four games! It’s a digital pack made by indy developer studio “DemonGames” and it’s available for purchase.  I had the pleasure of owning the pack and I’ll be reviewing all the games here.

I’ll be talking about the games then say how to get this awesome pack, so let’s start with the first game.

Demonia

In this side scrolling shooter game you are fighting in an evil cemetery that is the gate to hell and your job is to stop the evil. You only have your gun and one shot to get this mission done. It’s a classic remake that is really hard to play and master!
Everything about this game speaks eerie: The sound effects, the colors and the general atmosphere.

 

Gazzel Quest

This game takes us to ancient Egypt where you assume the role of a mighty warrior named Gazzel who is tired of fighting and wants to live a peaceful life. Much to the anger of the pharaoh who lost his best fighter so he kidnaps his lover “Salama” and puts her under lock and key. Your mission is to collect all five jewels to open the gate and free your true love. Each jewel is guarded by a demon.
It’s very similar to Knightmare yet has a unique vibe to it. For instance you get “hits” before dying while Knightmare is one hit one kill sort of game. Also the number of levels is different, and a lot of little differences for you to discover 😉

 

Knightmare

I’ve dedicated an entire blog post to this master piece, needless to say it’s the Deluxe version that has 5 playable characters including a penguin and a link like character (from the legend of Zelda series!).
Also you get more weapons than the original game like a Ninja Shuriken!
You can read my full review from here of the “Golden version”, 
All cheats work just fine in this version..

Project Xinatra

The last but not least game of the bundle. In fact I think it’s the best game. It’s a side scrolling shooter where you fight aliens as a part of a resistance movement. The graphics and overall mood of the game is very good.

 

Art and manuals

All games are shipped with game art, manuals, maps and hints, adding value to the pack and making it a collector’s item.

Promo video for the pack

 

How to acquire this pack?

All you have to do is to e-mail [email protected] and they will give you the instructions on how to get this awesome pack. From my experience it’s very easy and fluid process.

Final words

If you are a retro gamer looking for remakes with a modern twist, this pack is calling your name. I recommend getting it.

A way to organize random library books in a school

2019-11-09 / / 0 Comments
Upon remolding the library at our school. I was faced with a unique challenge. Many books that came from an organization (books for Africa) were out of order and had no manifesto detailing anything..
What we had basically was a pile of unorganized books and a mountain of paperwork to get them organized!

 The challenge was to input those books into a library system. But typing in the data of hundreds of books would take a lot of time and effort.

What solution I pitched to solve this issue?

I went for one of my favorite sites (Goodreads) for help. What I pitched for the librarian was the following:
  1. Create a Goodreads account for the school.
  2. Use the bar code scan feature to scan the codes from the books into the account. This would save a lot of time when compared to entering the books manually.
  3. Organize the books in shelves. The site allows you to create many shelves to organize your collection. Mark the book as a book you own.
  4. Use the search features for the books that don’t have a bar code or for those who got the bar code scratched off. You should be able to find it after writing a word or two.

What benefits does this system bring?

  1. This would save time versus having to enter every book by hand. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Since these books are out there you can use the pr-existing database of Goodreads to track your own.
  2. In the rare case of a book not having a bar code and not existing on the site. It can be entered manually. Which would reduce the work and add to Goodreads‘ global library of books.
  3. Using the export feature the book log can be downloaded offline, and that log would be the foundation of a library management system. Complete with borrow and return functions. (I haven’t got there yet).
  4. Students can create accounts and follow the school’s account on Goodreads or add it as a friend, then use that to track their online reading and meet objectives. This way the library can actually turn into a social community. Where students and teachers could discuss books, ask questions. Participate in challenges. All while making the librarian’s life a little bit easier.

Final words

 In hindsight, buying crates of books shouldn’t have been done without a list. And dumping the box contents on top of each other to create one big mess is never a good idea.
In spite of all that. I’m glad I was able to come up with a solution on the fly for this problem.

What would you do if you were in my place? Do you have a better solution to organize random library books? Please let me know in the comments section below.

5 Things no one told me about being a teacher

2019-11-02 / / 0 Comments

Being a teacher is a very noble career. Teachers are guardians of traditions and looked up to as people who pass down knowledge from one generation to another. One Arab poet went as far as saying that teachers are “Almost prophet like” when it comes to status and reverence.

 

No one will bring you an apple!

Keep in mind that  I’ve done some private courses at first. Then spending 2 years as a teaching assistant. And finally taking the role of a very “versatile” teacher at an international school.

Here are 5 things no one told me about being a teacher.

1. It’s a thankless job

At the end of the day it would be nice to hear the word thank you. Working without recognition or appreciation can be draining. Being a teacher is one of those jobs sadly. Everyone expects you to work endless hours to get the job done. With complete disregard to your physical status or personal time.

2. Delivering classes is the least of your worries!

No matter how large of a class load you have in school. It doesn’t compare to the amount of work that needs to be done outside of school! Research, preparation, marking, lesson planning and assessments. All that is not counted as a part of the job. Which means that you aren’t getting paid for all that hard work. 

3. An insane amount of follow up

As a teacher you have to follow up with every quiz you give, home work you assign and tests you make. Even disciplinary actions and rewards. You have to make weekly plans and write assessments on all of your students on monthly basis. I found this to be tedious very quickly!

4. You deal with a lot of “characters”

I bet that every teacher once thought to himself that he has the worst bunch of students, and for all I know he could be right. Some students are in serious need of discipline. Which requires follow up and a mountain of paperwork to be processed. Not exactly my cup of tea.
This is an issue when the administration doesn’t want to anger a parent even if their kid is down right spoiled.

5. Parents

This new variable was introduced to me when I started working private schools. I didn’t have to deal with this working my previous teaching “gigs”. I’ve learned very quickly that parents in private schools are executive shareholders. And winning them over is a vital part of having a prosperous career as a teacher.
Some parents expect to have long detailed discussions about their kids on daily basis. Others only drop by when their offspring fail an exam. Both are unhealthy and won’t benefit the child as much.

The silver lining

With that being said. I wouldn’t say that teaching is a job without joy. Some students are quite amusing once you get to know them. Seeing them mature and make progress is satisfying. Almost like watching a plant grow.

Tipsy teaching!

To me however, teaching is like alcohol (for those who consume it): It can be fun in moderation, but too much of it is bound to get you a hangover!

Have you worked as a teacher before? Do you find this post relevant? Share your experience in the comments section below.

Jumpcraft 3.7 Professional edition review and download

2019-10-23 / / 0 Comments
Jumpcraft (formerly known as Platform Studio) is a game creation program that makes it very easy for you to develop a game. Very similar to Game maker and Gdevelop. In this post I’ll talk about what makes it stand out, how I got it and the demise of Jumpcraft .

 

What makes Jumpcraft stand out from the game development bunch?

Jumpcraft is much easier to use than the rest of the aforementioned softwares. In fact it takes very little knowledge to develop a playable game, in fact you can drag random items from the tool box and debug it to have the game running with menus and title screen.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s originally targeted for schools to teach students how to make simple games. Ease of use was a key factor in design (and in me choosing this software over competitors).

Al thought it’s guided mainly for kids. You can use VB.Net for some “Power coding”. So it has some power under the hood.

The main interface

 

How did I get a hold of it?

At that time I was preparing for my graduation project. I chose to make an educational video game and initially tried buying a licensed copy of Game maker. I didn’t have a visa at the time so I had a friend purchase a license for me. But things didn’t go that smooth.
His visa was hacked somehow and the hacker sent us a pirated copy of Game maker. After a lengthily exchange with the bank and YoYo games. Everything was settled.
The receipt I got from the post office.
I came across Jumpcraft and wrote to them about their “flexible” payment options. I suggested to send them the price of the license in a registered letter and they would e-mail me the license when it arrives. So I went to the post office and sent them the sum of 50$ by mail. I got my license after a month and a half of waiting.

Jumpcraft down falls

No updates

The software had no updates for the longest of time. I bought the 3.7 version of Jumpcraft which was released in 2010 according to the license. I emailed them countless times asking for an update and they never responded to my many requests. I even asked for them to open source it or release it as abandon-ware. There was no response from the company.
Update : On the 4th of May 2021 Andrew open sourced Jump Craft! Details can be found here.

No support

The forums were taken down due to “spam” related issues. There was no place to ask for solutions or get help what so ever. The only shred of help was the help file bundled with the software.
The actual e-mail I was sent telling me about the spam

False advertising

The “Professional” version came with a photo-shop like program to edit pictures. Which turned out to be an old version of Gimp! Not even supporting single window mode..
Pricing plans compared

Confusing pricing plans

I was given the “standard edition” for free. But that didn’t compile or produce an exe file of the game. It was utterly useless. Then when it came time to pay I upgraded from Standard to Professional paying the full price of Professional.

Constant crashes

It crashed very often. Trying to create the game became near impossible to achieve. Clicking randomly on the screen caused the ill-fated program to crash like a maniac.

No Linux version, of course

After converting to Linux the software was useless. The development stopped in 2010. I don’t think the developer even heard of Linux, let alone being willing to develop a version for it.
I managed to run it on wine by installing all the prerequisites needed for it work.

The website no longer exists

If you go to the website you will find that it’s for sale. All traces of it were expunged from the web. The only way to actually view the site is to use the wayback machine. You can’t download the standard version (rated at 15$) or anything.
Here is a snapshot if you are interested from wayback machine. 
I’ve blogged about something similar in Arabic. When a commercial software is no longer supported.

 

Final thoughts

I don’t regret buying a software to do my graduation project. It will always be a memorable experience.

Update: On the 12th of May 2020 Andrew wrote back to me saying he moved on to other projects and that he doesn’t have time to maintain it anymore. Confirming the dead status of Jumpcraft.

 

Download

You can download Jump Craft 3.7 PRO from here.

Or from here.

To access the RPG tutorial made by Andrew (Pro Perk), download from here. 

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