Trucha Signer is a soft that let's you to resign Wii disc images after you change the original files. Today videogame hackers from GBAtemp community has found several interesting ways to use Trucha Signer:

.Modify the character change moves in Super Smash Brothers Brawl

. Uncensore ( = enable of gore) in  Manhunt 2

 .Change the characters look in Super Mario Strikers

I tough this kind of bugs were solved but right now there are several italian site down... Maybe I'm a techno romaticist but I'm kind happy that the bugs are still surviving in code around the world but probably today I watched too many episodes of Moyashimon...

NSFW: The legendary Japanese AV sensei TODAI San  has just posted a brand new review about the Total Media Agency  DVD featuring Hatsune Miku.



The DVD features also some scene with Yoko: the super popular character from the Gainax anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!  Yoko is super sexy (actaully I watch Gurren Lagan anime just to stare at her animated super boobs) and I confess I love her more than Miku chan!!

SIDE NOTE: ToraTora Porno brand has just released the first uncensored DVD featuring the new AV superstar Yuka Osawa. She is going to be the next Aoi Sora: believe me!!

After the huge success of the Suzumiya Haruhi model car Aoshima announced the second model of this Itasha Model series. This time the car (a Toyota Corolla AE86) features decals with illustrations from the visual novel To Heart 2.
I met Aoshima at the Nuremberg Toy Fair and it seems that they are interested in the European and American markets so there is the chance that these itasha series, sooner or later, will be officially distributed in our countries.

Amazon Japan has sold all their stock of XBOX360 HD DVD Players after the price lowered to 5000 Yen (ca 30 Euros).

Few days ago Kodansha published this book about Playstation saga and the 15 years war against Nintendo...

This is how to use that things and have sex with 2D eroge characters...

Today, I woke up and as everyday I started reading Kotaku while sipping a good italian espresso. Then I found a really interesting post about an article from another blog about eroge industry problems related to doujin. Actually I work(ed) in this field so I'm always curious by how people outside this business perceive it.
Doujin games are the "next big thing" in the otaku business since almost 3 years ago and in the industry the blooming situation of doujin market is compared to the eroge in the nineties (ah, good old days old kiabakura and free girls at my old job!). Actually many old school programmers and artist from 2D videogame companies are behind the biggest selling doujin games, but this is another story...
Something that is often misunderstood is the fact that many eroge companies are not companies at all but just brands: one brand is created to market a new game created trough a temporary team of drawers, writer, programmer and voices actors. The so called "outsourcing" has been in place for almost 10 years in the industry almost among the companies that now are "topping the eroge sales charts. And in games like the legendary Viper from Sogna the artists have always been famous anime drawers who wanted to make some good money and worked for the company under a pseudonim (like all voice actors in the best selling games)...
I think in many ways the erge industry has in many way always been more mature or almost more similar to the movie industry than the consumer games (just he fact that "normal" games industry can't accept the erotic games one is an indication of how much it's still behind other entertainments were: sex sells...). In the movie industry directors and actors are paid for a project and are not full time staff...
Also in several companies the owner is the writer that's why if there are some cuts the first to go are the additional writers since only in the low rating/selling eroge the story is not the strongest selling point. But in reality many writers have been freelance from the beginning so they always worked in the industry and at the same time in publishing so if they get famous through eroge it's no news that they jump on a new contract asap! Actually I always tough that eroge are  digital books even tough the media is visual the story for the best selling games is the main point (so much that supe successfull companies big issue is find the right story for the new game not to get a good artist).
Eroge industry and doujin have always been linked (the real "tokyo erogame show" is the commercial booths area of Comiket after all) whats new in the last 2-3 years is the decline of the sales for the average game (almost 70% of games sells less than 5000 copies while the best sellers run over 50-100.000 copies) so the doujin artist don't have take the hassle to start a company and just keep releasing doujin games as they have always done. The new thing is just that now they invest more money in the doujin games (voice actors usually cost of 30% of the total cost of a game production) instead of going "official" since the eroge business competition is so strong that it's  difficult to get money right now if you don't have a super strong doujin franchise (instead after releasing a good doujin game a circle can sell even 30-40.000 copies!) or a big company supporting you with the production/distribution/promotion issues.

And... time to make a new espresso and start to work...

Spotted this on Akiba Blog...

During carnival time in every italian city there is a parade with thousand costumed participants and dozens of floats bearing papier-mâché figures  and performing artists. This year the city of San Benedetto featured a float with a big Super Mario sculpture that won he first price: finally Italy is celebrating the biggest national hero (I'm still puzzled why the Super Mario Theme should be the Japanese anthem and not the Italian one!)


Note: I found this few days ago on an Italian blog and I will post the link as soon as I find it... Yes, I'm getting old or maybe in the last 20 years I went to (way) to many raves... gomenne!

Who is the real figure? Julie (aka Amano Ai) or the Revoltech Dunboard?!

 
Today Bandai announced a new Monster Hunter energy drink produced to promote Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G that will be release for PSP at the end of march. The "monster hunter drink" will be manufatcured by Hino Pharmaceutical Ind. Co (so it will not taste of gunpla or bandai plastic) and  each bottle will containt 100ml of secret potion and wil cost  200 Yen.  It containts royal jelly, Vitamin B6、Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6,  VitaminB2, Caffeine and Niacin so this drink seems perfect for geeks and gamers of all ages! Monster Hunter Drink will be released on the same day of the PSP game so the fans who lineup all night to get the game will get the "hunter power" to play the game!
 

Each energy drink bottle's cap is customized with a different game icon (there are 10 different caps to collect).

Our super kawai photographer Julie just sent a couple of photos live from the Wonderfestival. She spotted these beautiful wood otaku sculptures. I think this is the start of a new trend among Japanese vinyl artists...

The winter edition of Wonfes has just opened. I always been a fan of the Tshirts designed by Hironori Oooka but in the last couple of years I think he is not inspired as before, but maybe it's just me...
Winners of this edition Wonder Showcase are:


WSC #040
Haruki
BORN 1982.01.30

[Genocide Kitten]
http://www.hekill.com/




WSC#041
Kouji WAKITA
 BORN 1974.01.20

[カノン]
http://cannon.blog.bai.ne.jp/



WSC#042
Yusuke MASAKI
 BORN 1981.04.09
 
[桜前線]
http://sakuzensen.web.fc2.com/

Madrigal today sent me the link to this Final Fantasy 7 bootleg for NES/Famicom programmed by Shenzhen Nanjing Technology Co, Ltd
"From start to almost finish, the game follows the PlayStation port. Key dialogue sequences are completely identical, such as when the group finds what Sephiroth did to the Midgar Zolm to when Cloud freaks out and hands over the Black Materia. Aeris tells the drunk old dressmaker how Cloud has always wished that just once he could dress up like a girl. Dyne and Barrett have the same conversations as in the PlayStation original. Nothing is missing or out of place".

Today, my old tomodachi at HobiRecords have officially released Ryoujyoku Hardcore (produced by the Rush Our 2 gabber collective).  HobiRecords is the music label of the huge hentai games distributor Hobibox (they are behind Nitroplus, Age Soft and other major bishjoujo makers) so they created this fake bishoujo games soundtrack CD with Gabber/hardcore twist. Ryoujyoku Hardcore features artists like Sharpnel and Kenta and the voice actors from Black Package an eroge company famous for the hardcore stories like Koukai (download a playable demo here). With titles like   Raperape Mix, Forcing Fellatio Mix and Extended Anal Mix this CD can't be missed by any bishoujo game fan and JAV Talk user (go Bananaboy go!!)!
Damn seems yesterday when in 2002 I sponsored Sharpnel live at Milk Club in Ebisu (damn I'm old), but for an (ex) Techno DJ like me  what's better than porno game harcore to relax?!
 

Today Alchemist posted a really crazy page for Higurashi DS: seems that "viral marketing" is getting into the bishoujo games market or this is just a  place holder created by Alchemist webmasters?!

A very old hentai game for the Famicom Disk System produced by Hacker International...

Last october, during the All Japan Radicon Show Bandai announced a special chogokin Tachikoma robot (in scale 1/24).
Saturday 23 february this Usb figure will finally be released.
The Tachikoma thanks to the usb PC connection cable, a couple of LEDs and a speaker is able to speak, to read your emails and interact with PC applications. Bandai also added mini games to make it more fun (even tough, since Bandai bought Namco, they should have create way better videogames)...

Today 07th Expansion officially announced Higurashi no Naku Koro ni for Nintendo DS. The game will be divided in 4 episodes. The first one will be relased on 26 June. The story should follow the PS2 version that has sold over 140.000 copies (so it was just a matter of time for a DS port). The timing of this announcement is perfect since tomorrow will be released the first volume of the Higurashi manga adaptation. I confess that I knew about this porting back in December but I signed an NDA with my blood so... I can imagine some maniac/otakus complaining about the many Higurashi releases but, basically, each version of the game sold better than the one before (each version of Higurashi is made for a different audience so the idea of releasing the game for DS is genial since the DS audience is not the same one fo the original doujin and PS2 versions)...

Ops, I forgot to post this photo of the brand new Eggplane Series presented during the Nuremberg Toy Fair. The kits are already on sale in Japan and  each box features a moe mascotte (like mechamusume and Sky Girls).

DevinQuest has released the Nintendo DS porting of the Fate/Stay Night bishoujo game for PC released by Type Moon during 2004. Actually this homebrew is based on the taikenban (PC demo) translated in english by insani.

If you got a falshcard you can download this homebrew here (Rapidshare - 9 MB).

According to Traders Web, a Japanese business financial news website, Square Enix is going to push back the release of Final Fantasy 13 for Playstation 3 till march 2010. This will let the PS3 user base to grow but meanwhile the value of SquareEnix stocks are supposed to loose value...  some gamers on 2channel have already started to compare FF13 to the vapor game king: Gran Turismo for PSP...

Last summer Yujin announced the release  of the gatchapoin series Shooting Game Historica Figure Collection Gashapon that was supposed to be released last december. Finally Play Asia has just posted these gatchapon that cost ca 2,5 Euro each. These 6 figures are going to be pretty popular among Japanese gatcha junkies so in few days they will get the "collectors item" status (of course  I'm going to buy a 12 box set along with the Vic Viper Scale 1/60 that I already ordered)...

Main Features:

• Six Figures: Gradius V (Vic Viper),  Image Fight (Daedalus), R-Type Final (Arrowhead), Darius (Silver Hawk Red Type), Darius (Silver Hawk Blue Type) and Gradius 2 (Metarion)
• Material: PVC & ABS
• Size: ca 7 cm

Massimo at HobbyMedia.it has just posted this body (from ProLine) for Rock Crawlers Radio Controlled models (Axial Scorpion & HPI Wheely King) that looks like Warthog from Halo 3 on steroids.

Features:
· Only 41 grams
· Made with Genuine GE .030 super lightweight, shatter proof lexan
· 12.5” long x 5” wide x 3.4” tall
· Detail decal sheet included

DIGG THIS!!

This year I had to go back to Europe for the Nuremberg Toy fair so I couldn't attend the AOU 2008 that has been held at the end of last week. Koji, from Akihabara Channel has posted a great reportage.

Few weeks ago videogame hackers discovered an exploit based on Zelda. Yesterday laZmike  has released a video of the classic HELLO WORLD demo he created thanx to the Twilight Hack exploit (video tutorial here). In the next weeks he should release the source code...

Yesterday evening I wanted to make some Kaarage (Japanese fried chicken) so I googled it and found a couple of great blogs about Japanese cooking: Just Hungry and Just Bento.  On the bento blog I found out that in march a new Oekaki Bento book will be released.
Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes by Christopher D. Salyers is a compact hardcover book with page after page of full color photos of bentos mostly made by Japanese mothers for their little children. It's not how-to book but a pocket sized coffee table book (even tough there are a couple of how-to pages). A book about these high elaborated bentos is not new but this one is finally in English  and is pretty cheap if compared to the Japanese import books.


A Nintendo DS bento from Alafista

Akiba Blog celebrated St Valentine day starting the operations of the english edition of this famous Japanese blog. The main sponsors is Himeya online shop that is runned by old friends so I wish them the best! Go Akiba go!!!

After few years of onorable videogaming service Sega has decided to close the Sega Direct online store on March 31 (old news). Today Sega announced that from next monday (February 18) it will be possibile to reserve a special celebration CD that will be on sale from March 27 to March 31: just five days! I think  any Sega and Dreamcast fan should buy one and maybe Sega manager will remember what made their brand so GREAT...

Here is a bunch of videos of the new Gundam VS Gundam arcade game  shooted today at the AOU 2008 arcade game show held in Makuhari Messe. Official screenshots gallery here.

Today a new instant noodle inspired by Yakuza 3 has been announced in Japan! The package contains the dried udon and tree bags with dried vegetables, souce and spice powder.

Yasu, a Japanese videogame hacker, last week released the codes to play Mario Kart DS with the paddle that comes bundled with Arkanoid DS. If you got an R4 you can download the cheat codes here.

This year, almost for Japanese and Chinese, is the year of the Rat. My asian horoscope sign is exactly the rat. As far as my Japanese friends tell me I should to have a lucky year and so I decided to make some online shopping: I will buy a special "Rat" edition Tamiya Mini4WD from Hobby Link Japan and I will preorder Nights for PS2 (Nightopia Dream Pack version) from Play Asia just to be able to partecipate to the Lucky Draw that they will held till February 29th (since I'm a Rat I'm supposed to be a lucky otaku this year!!).

At the Nuremberg Toy Fair I spotted this beautiful Lego Indiana Jones diorama (OK I know I'm not a great photographer).

Our Japanese otaku idol photographer friend Julie has posted about a really cool retrogame called DON JOUAN. This videogame appears to be the very first dating sim produced in the west (way before my old friend Peter Payne started the localization of Japanese bishoujo games for the western markets).
DON JOUAN runs on the old Oric 1 microcomputer  and if you got a flashcard for your DS you can play it on the new DSORIC emulator!
It seems a really cool way to celebrate San Valentine for all retrogamers out there (and remember: with hentai games you don't even need to spend money on a date with your girlfriend)! Happy Valentine day and don't eat to much chocolate!!


Note: In the last few days Julie (aka Amano Ai) has been busy working as a model at the Osaka Automesse and as a Race Queen in several races so she couldn't update her Besidegames page ans slipped to number two spot in the Besidegames Highscore ranking so, as a San Valentine virtual present to our lovely idol photographer,  we should help her go back to number one trough clicking the score buttons in all the posts on her blog as many times as we can!

At the Nuremberg Toy Fair Meccano ("the french Lego") has showed a new steampunk set called Special Edition Train Set.  In the package there are 575 Meccano pieces that let us build several Steampunked models like a Submarine  and a Rocket...

 

Today, at Nuremberg Toy Fair, I visited the  Lego mega booth and found several new sets that will be released during 2008. The most interesting is this special edition box, with a Golden Brick  Lego, produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the danish blocks.

 

(a toy Playmobil store in Nuremberg)
Today I visited the Nurember Toy Fair. The exhibition is huge nad I barely visited one complete area. If your are into RC you can browse our new RC blog on www.hobbymedia.it   In the next few days I will post some strange producst I found (like the Noah`s Ark scale model kit)!

Today I landed in Germany for the Nuremberg Toy Fair and while I was waiting for the baggages I saw these great  Lego sculpures placed near the be baggage belts. It was a surreal scene and for a second I tought to be inside a real sized  Legoland Airport!!!