Top 50 Video Game Characters of All Time

I found this on stuff. Thought it looked about right. Shows the characters first appearance in brackets.

What do you guys think?

Link to article.

1. Mario (Donkey Kong, Nintendo, 1981)    2. Link (The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo, 1986)
   3. Master Chief (Halo: Combat Evolved, Microsoft, 2001)
   4. Solid Snake (Metal Gear, Konami, 1987)
   5. Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII, Square, 1997)
   6. Pac-Man (Pac-Man, Namco, 1980)
   7. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider, Eidos 1996)
   8. Gordon Freeman (Half-Life, Valve, 1998)
   9. Kratos (God of War, Sony, 2005)
  10. Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega, 1990)
  11. Crash (Crash Bandicoot, Sony, 1996)
  12. "Soap" MacTavish (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision, 2007)
  13. Nico Bellic (Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar, 2008)
  14. Samus Aran (Metroid, Nintendo 1986)
  15. Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank, Sony, 2002)
  16. Nathan Drake (Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Sony, 2007)
  17. Captain Price (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision, 2007)
  18. Kirby (Kirby's Dream Land, Nintendo, 1992)
  19. Marcus Fenix (Gears of War, Microsoft, 2006)
  20. Pikachu (Pokemon Red/Green, Nintendo 1996)
  21. Yoshi (Super Mario World, Nintendo, 1990)
  22. "CJ" Johnson (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Rockstar, 2004)
  23. Mega Man (Mega Man, Capcom, 1987)
  24. Sam Fisher (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Ubisoft, 2002)
  25. Shadow (Sonic Adventure 2, Sega, 2001)
  26. Jak (Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Sony, 2001)
  27. Duke Nukem (Duke Nukem, Apogee, 1991)
  28. Dante (Devil May Cry, Bandai, 2003)
  29. Naruto (Naruto: Konoha Ninpoch, Bandai, 2003)
  30. Altair (Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft, 2007)
  31. Zelda (The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo, 1986)
  32. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII, Square, 1997)
  33. Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong, Nintendo, 1981)
  34. The Prince (Prince of Persia, Broderbund, 1989)
  35. Ezio (Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft, 2009)
  36. Leon S (Biohazard/ Resident Evil, Capcom, 1996)
  37. Ash Ketchum (Pokemon Red/Green, Nintendo, 1996)
  38. Guybrush Threepwood (The Secret of Monkey Island, LucasArts, 1990)
  39. Spyro (Spyro the Dragon, Universal, 1998)
  40. "Ghost" Riley (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Activision, 2009)
  41. Goku (Dragon Daihikyoe, Epoch, 1987)
  42. Max Payne (Max Payne, Rockstar, 2001)
  43. Jill Valentine (Biohazard/ Resident Evil, Capcom, 1996)
  44. Princess Peach (Super Mario Bros., Nintendo, 1985)
  45. Larry Laffer (Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Sierra, 1987)
  46. Augustus Cole (Gears of War, Microsoft, 2006)
  47. Bowser (Super Mario Bros, Nintendo, 1985)
  48. Eddie Riggs (Brutal Legend, EA, 2009)
  49. Ryu (Street Fighter, Capcom, 1987)
  50. Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet, Sony, 2008)

miAlchemy

So Foo showed me this free game on Android called Alchemy. It's pretty simple. You start off with the four basic elements; earth, fire, water, and air. Then you drag one on another and make something else. e.g. earth + water = swamp, fire + air = energy, energy + swamp = life. There are 360 elements to unlock in the free version.

Being a coder I thought that it seemed pretty simple to make. So, I made miAlchemy (original, I know). Now it doesn't look as awesome as the Android one, and it's for computer instead. It's written in Python; like the last few projects I've put up here.

The way it figures out which elements exist allows for drop in add-ons. That way you can simply add a file into the elements folder and BAM! it's in the game. Images can be changed just as easily.

Mine also allows more then 2 things to be combined at a time. So something like: earth + air + fire + water = life, is possible.

My version has:
Earth
Air
Water
Fire
Alcohol

Put some suggestions in the comments and I'll add it to the game. If it's not obvious, let me know how to make it.

When I get some more elements into the game I'll package it up and release it for you guys.
If you want to do some 40x40 images would be good too.

miMTGCrawler

So as per my previous post, I have written a very simple program to show me the value of Magic Cards. All you do is run the program and type in the name of the card. Then it prints out the value of the card for each version it is in. In addition it also saves and formats the printed bits in a txt file, which is compatable with spreadsheet software. See images below.

Simply type in the card you are looking for and press enter.

That is then saved here.

Which you can then import...

Here!

It also takes into account cards that do not exist. But not half typed. i.e. If I typed 'myr' it would return everything with myr in the title... No really worth fixing. More the error / aid of the website it's searching.

[Small error fixed: 'Mirrodin Besieged Singles' was picked up from the ads on the side bar. Now the first category is correct. I'm not replacing the screenshots though. You get the picture. (Spot the pun)]

Code below:

#!C:/Program Files/Python/Python 2.7

import urllib

print "miMTGCrawler version 0.1"

f = open('cardList.txt', 'a')

# The below URL is the link to a card. The card name is appended, also '+' replaces ' '. Case is irrelevent.
# e.g. 'Myr Enforcer' = 'Myr+Enforcer'
# Searches the website starcitygames.com for the information.
scLink = 'http://sales.starcitygames.com/search.php?substring='

while(True):
    print "Please enter card name: "
    card = raw_input()
    if card == 'q':
        break
   
    #Builds the URL for the card.
    cardLink = scLink + card.replace(' ', '+')
    page = urllib.urlopen(cardLink).read()
   
    # Search for the category. e.g. 'Mirridon'
    categoryString = 'http://sales.starcitygames.com//category.php?cat='
   
    # Jumps to the first listing.
    pos = page.find('tooltip')
       
    pos = page.find(categoryString, pos)
    # Loops through this process until there are no more valid categories on the page.
    while (pos != -1):
        pos = page.find('>', pos) + 1
        # This will build a string for the Card and it's categories and values of the listing found.
        cardString = card + '\t' + page[pos : page.find('<', pos)] + '\t'
        pos = page.find('">$', pos)
        # Checks to see if a price was found following the category.
        if pos == -1:
            print 'There is no such card: ' + card
            break
        cardString = cardString + page[page.find('$', pos) : page.find('</td>', pos)]
        print cardString + '\n'
        f.write(cardString + '\n')
        # Look for the next category.
        pos = page.find(categoryString, pos)

      

Back With a Plan

I'm back. Fiji was awesome. Got a wee bit burnt... But no visible tan due to the copious amounts of sunblock I was applying. Damn. Also I left the sunblock at home so never found out about taking it through customs. Crystal clear water and fish everywhere. Also a lot of frogs. I found that strange. I don't have the camera with me at the moment so pictures will have to wait. Though they will be on here at some point.

As for tanks: No progress. Aside from the visuals there isn't too much to do (that is fun to code). So I'll have a chat with Foo to see where we are heading with this and will let you know.

In the mean time. I did come home to a large amount of Magic Cards at the door. I'm not expecting to use them all, large is an entire shoe box full which I got for NZD$10.50, so I going to try to make some of my money back by reselling them individually on TradeMe.

I'm not a hardcore fan so I have little to no idea of the worth of the cards, so what I am going to do is write another web crawler, like this one. Woo! Finally back to some coding. This is going to search StarCity for each card and return the value of said card for me, then dump it into a txt file; which I can directly import to a spreadsheet. Should let me know the most valuable to least.

I'm going to be using Python for this. Will post the source later on Ok? Ok.

Holiday!

Woo! So because my girlfriend just turned 21. We have decided to go to Fiji. That should be fun. Yes, I am aware the link is to a google search but every image is amazing. The only problem I am facing is that I am very very white. See image below.

This means that I am going to die. I'm not sure if customs will let me take a 3 litre milk bottle filled with sunblock, but I am very tempted to try anyway. I will be wearing a shirt like this to get the point across to the locals.

I will try put up some pictures to make you all jealous. Hopefully my Android can get internet access without costing me a small fortune... So I will leave you with this image below. And a link to the guy who's blog I found it on. If you have not subscribed to his blog yet, I highly suggest you do so. It is hilarious.

Cheers everyone,

Magic The Gathering

So I used to play Magic The Gathering when I was around 14. I have since found all out that a couple of my friends (including Foo) play. Sweet. It seems to be the case that each edition has better cards then the last. The newest set came out around 7 years ago... I think. So my cards are pretty average.

My play style: I have no bloody idea. Play shit and hope something awesome happens.

I'm quite good at puzzles and problem solving so strategy games seem to come naturally to me. Back in the day I made an adequate Myr deck. So what better thing to do then continue with the theme.

I'm not spending a lot of money on this. I'm a tight ass. So I found a couple stupid people on TradeMe, New Zealand's equivalent of eBay, that are selling ridiculous amounts of cards at $1 reserve. Managed to pick up 177 mostly white (not racist) cards in newish condition for $7.50. Not a bad deal. And a couple other decent deals.

Made a decent red/artifact deck that relies on the shit load of Myrs I have. Problem is that it takes a bit of mana to get going. Solution? Level-up creatures. I haven't got any of these yet...

Here's my current deck:

Lands 24
20x Mountain
4x Great Furnace (Note artifact)

Red Creatures 5
1x Dragon Mage Flying (He is awesome)
1x Goblin Machinist
2x Atog Sacrifice Artifact...
1x Megatog Sacrifice Artifact...

Red Spells 8
1x Shrapnel Blast Sacrifice Artifact...
2x Forge Armor (This card makes the deck)
2x Carbonize
1x Dragon Breath
1x Molten Rain
1x Erratic Explosion

Artifacts 4
1x Darksteel Pendant
1x Banshee's Blade Equipment
1x Myr Reservoir
1x Myr Matrix

Artifact Creatures 19
1x Myr Moonvessel Gives mana on death
2x Myr Enforcer Affinity for Artifacts
3x Iron Myr Gives mana on tap
2x Frogmite Affinity for Artifacts
1x Lodestone Myr
2x Cathodion Gives mana on death
2x Arcbound Crusher Modular
3x Myr Retriever
1x Myr Propagator
1x Yotian Soldier
1x Oxidda Golem Affinity for Mountains

Any comments?

Sorry this isn't software again... I'm posting at work again and haven't had time to update the blog at home.

100 Followers!!!

Awesome. Simply awesome. I would like to think my mum, for the cake, my brother and cousin for the story, myself for the epic content, all my followers for keeping me here, and all the little people I squashed to get where I am today.
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Here's a whole bunch of random images I enjoy. To celebrate. I will have some content related to the blog later on. I hope. When I get around to it... I'll do it tonight. I promise.

Cake!

So it was my birthday a while ago. Yay me! I'm now 20. Sorry I haven't had any software-ish updates for a while. Still on break from, well, everything. Haha.

My mum is very good at making cakes. She made my cake. It was awesome. She recently won Twitters Hottest Home Baker. You can see some of her work here, on her website. She is also a computer person.

Here is a picture of my cake.



It's nice. And no, the cake is not a lie. It is in fact a real cake.